


Forgotten but Not Lost

by KayJayComicArt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action & Romance, Adventure & Romance, Alien Character(s), Alpha Lotor (Voltron), Amnesia, Angst and Romance, Awkward Romance, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, Drama & Romance, Emperor Lotor (Voltron), Eventual Romance, F/M, Good Lotor (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Interspecies Romance, Minor Character Death, Near Death Experiences, Original Character Death(s), Past Character Death, Pining Lotor (Voltron), Protective Lotor (Voltron), Romance, Slow Romance, Soft Lotor (Voltron), Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 08:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18279344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayJayComicArt/pseuds/KayJayComicArt
Summary: A strange woman from an unknown planet has crash landed on Olkarion wearing Galra armor and has no memory of her life prior. She soon joins Team Voltron in an attempt to regain her forgotten memories and help the universe escape Zarkon's grasp. But in doing so she meets a man with flowing white hair...just who is he and why does he claim to know her? LotorxOC, Alternate Reality.





	1. A New Life

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> I finally created the prologue for this story, with the commissions I've had to do, and BHBL, I never got time to start it, but now that I have, I'll be sure to post as much as I can!
> 
> This fic is set in an alternate reality where Allura and Lotor became best friends rather than love interests, Lance and Allura never happen and the entirety of seasons seven and eight are rewritten.
> 
> This is a canonxoc fic centered around Lotor, if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to click off. I don't want to waste your time, I just love these kinds of stories.
> 
> Well, I hope you enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a strange woman crash lands on Olkarion out of nowhere, Melrak, Colren, Janze, and Sephira have no idea what to do and summon their leader to assist. Will the four of them, plus Ryner be able to uncover this woman's identity, and why does she say she can't remember anything prior to the event?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> I finally created the prologue for this story, with the commissions I've had to do, and BHBL, I never got time to start it, but now that I have, I'll be sure to post as much as I can!
> 
> This fic is set in an alternate reality where Allura and Lotor became best friends rather than love interests, Lance and Allura never happen and the entirety of seasons seven and eight are rewritten.
> 
> This is a canonxoc fic centered around Lotor, if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to click off. I don't want to waste your time, I just love these kinds of stories.
> 
> Well, I hope you enjoy!

In life, everything had a balance, the water and the earth, the wind and the leaves, the joy and the sadness. You could not have one without the other, even peace had its equal...Chaos, and that is what a young woman from another world would soon come to realize. When she finally awoke from a crash landing on Olkarion, light-years from her beloved home and family.

The story began when two sentries were chatting on the edge of the forest, having just finished their shifts for the evening, and were now waiting for their replacements to show up and take over for the night. Neither of them expected to catch a glimpse of a glow in the distance and look up to see a ball of metal and flames barrel towards them with no signs of slowing down or stopping, like a meteor falling from the sky.

Luckily the two were quick on their feet in their panic and managed to run far enough away that the impact of the metal ship against the ground did not affect them. Sadly, the forest floor did not have that luxury. Around the strange vehicle towered a deep crater that held the purple and red, angular escape pod.

"Wh-what do we do, Colren?" The female sentry, a noseless woman with blue scelra and green eyes asked, looking at the male sentry beside her with pale yellow skin, green scelra and red eyes. Neither of them knew what to do in this situation and just stood there dumbfounded, when two other sentries, their replacements, finally arrived.

"What's going on?" A strong male sentry with pale red skin, green scelra and brown eyes asked, physically fitter than the others as he looked from the two confused guards to the crater. "Are we under attack?!" He then turned to the smallest of the group with muted green skin, yellow scelra and black eyes, who jumped slightly in surprise. "Find Ryner, tell her to come quickly, she'll know what to do."

The smallest nodded and spun, quickly sprinting off to get their beloved leader.

"I-I don't think so, Melrak...Why would someone attack us in such a self-destructive way?" Colren asked softly, staring at the pod in the crater. "This escape pod just appeared out of the sky and crashed right where we were standing. There are far better ways to do battle than diving head-first into enemy territory, just to cause yourself harm."

He was right, the pod was in a terrible state, burnt, bent and broken in places, the glass covering the seat the pilot occupied broken in some areas from the hard landing. There was someone inside, as far as they could see, but said being was not moving an inch. They were most likely unconscious from the dreadful crash.

Melrak, the largest of the three remaining sentries, stepped forward to enter the crater, despite the female sentry begging for him to do otherwise. He stopped and looked over at her. "Sephiras, I'll be fine. I've faced an army of Galra in the past, one crashed pilot won't be enough to take me down." His words were comforting, but Sephiras frowned with concern.

"Th-then I'm coming to!" Colren stammered, being the most timid of the four. He stepped forward and held onto his spear like it was the only thing keeping him alive. Melrak and Sephiras shared a look and arched their brows, before the female stepped forward and drew her gun, which looked suspiciously like a flower.

"And me. I'm not about to let you boys take all the glory here~!"

The three smirked bravely and went to the edge of the crater, Melrak assisted Colren into the steep hole, then helped Sephiras, who was caught by the timid Olkari. "Thanks Colren." She said with a sweet smile as she was put down by the blushing man, who mumbled 'no problem' timidly. Melrak jumped down and landed behind them with a heavy thump, startling the pair of them.

"Flirt later, we've got to get this pod open and restrain whoever's inside." The beefy alien told them simply, hearing embarrassed complaints from his two friends as he went over to the pod and felt the glass casing for a way to open it from the outside. When he found a switch, he tried pressing it, but growled irritably when nothing happened.

It was broken.

"Fine." He sneered, grabbing both sides of the glass. "You want to be like that, then I've got no problem ripping you off with my bear hands!" And true to his word, with a few heavy tugs and strained grunts, he tore the door of the pod clean off and tossed it to the side, where the fragile glass shattered.

Just as that happened, the fourth sentry, who was known as Janze, arrived with Ryner, a grey skinned Olkari with the same head and neck appendages as Sephiras only her's were wilted, red eyes with blue/green scelra and a beautiful red gem embedded into her forehead. The elder woman and rightful leader of the forest dwelling Olkari, stepped towards the crater as Janze looked around for his friends, concerned they may have been obliterated by whoever had tresspassed onto their land.

When Ryner reached the edge of the stable dirt and looked inside, she called Janze over. "Melrak, Sephiras and Colren are over here, Janze." She stated, and smiled slightly when the thinner, most intelligent of the four, sighed with relief and ran over, stopping at their leader's side.

"Ma'am." Melrak started, getting her attention as he placed his hand on the top of the pod and stared at the person inside, while Sephiras was checking for life signs. "According to Colren and Sephiras, this pod crashed before them as if it had no control of its trajectory."

"Y-yes." Colren continued, nervously gripping his spear with a flustered expression. "A-and when examining the pod, we noticed the pilot had yet to make any movements, sh-she didn't even open the pod door, or scan for life, or anything..."

Ryner frowned and stared at the woman inside the pod, she had muted cyan blue hair, burnt sienna skin, orange cat-like markings with various other markings on the bridge of her nose, around her eyes and on her cheeks, the latter looking like thick whiskers. She did not appear healthy, her eyes had bags beneath them and injuries littered her skin.

What stuck out the most, was her Galra armor, though damaged, it was intact enough to understand the insignia on the side. However the armor she wore did not match the usual Galra colours. Instead of the reds, yellows and blacks, she adorned blues, greys, blacks and oranges. It was an odd combination to see.

Sephiras made a slight noise, and got both the males' attention, and Ryner's as well. "She's alive, though barely! With how she's breathing, I'd say the reason she collapsed wasn't because of the crash, but because of oxygen starvation!"

"Oxygen starvation?" Janze repeated, stroking his chin while Sephiras and Colren worked together to remove the unconscious woman from the wreckage. "Well, that's not surprising, these escape pods were made for short space travel and nothing more...She must have come from a nearby planet, otherwise she'd have died before she crashed."

"She did." Ryner stated, as the woman was laid down on a flat part of the crater's floor. "This woman is a Tylyrion, a neighbouring planet-dwelling species, they used to frequent our world often back when we had control of the city. Like us they are an engineering society, yet they also have promise as warriors as well."

"If they're our friends, why is this one working with the Galra?" Melrak asked, glaring suspiciously at the weakened stranger.

""We shouldn't assume anything." Colren said, as Sephiras kept checking the woman's vital signs to ensure she stayed with them. "There could be a reasonable explanation for all of this."

"Like what? She must have openly accepted wearing their armor, unless they force dressed her!" Melrak countered, making a good point.

"Hmmm, but why would a Galra soldier use their own escape pod? We haven't heard of a battle resulting in a destroyed Cruiser."

"That doesn't mean there wasn't some kind of confrontation! I say we leave her here for her 'allies' to find."

Ryner spoke up before Colran could argue back, having stood to do just that. "Enough." She said it with enough force to silence all debates. "It's just like Colran says...We will not let someone suffer, whether they're wearing Galra armor or not, without the full story. If we allow her to die without just reasoning, we may as well be as bad as those who enslaved our king!"

Melrak went silent, gritting his teeth as he looked away with a click of the tongue. She had a point, they weren't brutal murderers, after all. Every life held meaning. "Fine, but can we at least take precautions, if we assist her, and it turns out she is the enemy, I'll never forgive myself for not restraining her when we had the chance!"

Ryner nodded. "Don't worry, Melrak, I had no intentions of letting her roam free without understanding the situation first." She turned her attention to the other female in their little group. "Sephiras, can you ensure our 'guest's' survival until we can craft a healing pod?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, Colran, can you create some simple handcuffs for her?"

"Y-yes!"

"Melrak, can you carry her back to camp, since you far exceed any of us in strength?"

"...Fine..."

"And Janze, could you create a fast-recovery healing pod when we return? We must be swift if we want to ensure her survival."

"...Hm, me?! Uh, sure I can, ma'am!"

Ryner smiled at her small group of sentries. "Good, thank you for all your hard work. If we play our cards correctly, we may gain some valuable information about Galra operations. Let's make haste, we haven't the time to waste here."

The four sentries bowed with respect. "Yes, ma'am!"

~FbnL~

Everything felt strange, like she was stuck in deep space, just floating along, weightless and unable to move by choice. The world around her was pitch black and the only sounds she could hear were the dull, muffled voices of people she could not see. She just wanted to sleep off this aching pain throbbing in her battered skull, but those sounds, that conversation, kept pulling her towards a light in the distance.

'I don't want to wake up...' She thought sluggishly, but could do nothing to alter her course and avoid it, therefore she was engulfed by the bright light, without any say otherwise.

Slowly, her vision cleared and instead of being stuck in a black abyss, she was contained in a human-sized cylindrical pod of sorts, behind a glass screen that had leaves sticking out on the outside. Wait...Was this a pod, made of wood?!

Janze looked up from the control panel to see her staring at him, only to look back down and do a double take when he realized she was awake. "M-ma'am! She's awake! The prisoner is awake!"

Prisoner?

In a split second, an older alien woman came into her field of vision, and stared at her confused features for a second before she turned to Janze. "Open the pod." He nodded skittishly and pressed a button, watching as the wooden pod hissed, and the vine-locked door lifted into the air. How was a wooden door airtight?!

Nervously, the woman regained her footing and stepped down from the ledge in the pod, groaning when her aching soles made contact with the ground. She looked down and froze in surprise at the sight of the itchy wooden handcuffs around her wrists.

Wait, what?!

"Wh-where am I?" The nervous stranger asked, looking around at the different aliens in the room. "What happened? What am I doing here?!"

"Calm down." Ryner said, raising a hand waving it up and down, gesturing for her to do just that. "You're on the planet Olkari, in our small village. We found you on the outskirts of the forest in a Galra escape pod, you were badly injured and needed urgent medical attention."

"W-wait, I was in an escape pod?" This got her some strange looks, and yet another suspicious glare from Melrak. "No, I...I can't..." Her eyes darted back and forth as she began to panic, trying to process what little information she could and understand the situation. "I can't remember! I-I don't remember anything!"

Ryner's eyes narrowed, she was not going to believe a stranger so easily. "There's no need to hide your intentions or reasons behind being in that pod. Why were you there, what reason do you have for coming here, and are you associated to the Galra in any way?"

"Please listen to me!" The stranger stepped forward as tears pricked at her ombre coloured eyes, which went from red at the top, to blue at the bottom. "I honestly can't remember anything! I don't know who I am, or why I'm here. I-I'm so scared, I don't know anything!"

The conviction behind those words, and the genuine fear in her eyes made the forest-dwelling leader hesitate in surprise. However she knew better than to believe words alone, and her expression hardened. "Well, until you regain your senses, you will remain in custody here. Melrak and Colran will keep an eye on you."

"But-"

Ryner turned to the two men, one being noble and loyal, while the other shook in slight fear of being the one to guard the now conscious woman. "If anything is amiss, report to me immediately. I must make preparations to remove the pod before the Galra grow curious and wander too far into our territory."

"Yes, ma'am!" Both men said, bowing again as Sephiras, Ryner and Janze left and stranger just stared down at the ground with wide, disturbed eyes. Colran could tell something was amiss, but said nothing, and Melrak still distrusted her.

Until they got some information out of her, she would be seen as the enemy and remain in custody, and neither would say otherwise.

~FbnL~

Several weeks passed since the crash, and the stranger sat on her bed silently. She was staring off into space as she kept trying to remember things from her past, but with little to no success. She only remembered one thing, and that was that she had been captured and imprisoned before, and her captors had been a species with purple skin and glowing yellow eyes, assuming the image of the guard in her memories was correct.

Of course, she never spoke of this fact, after all, she couldn't confirm if it was true or not, and with little knowledge of herself or anything else, she could not even trust her own judgement. Right now, she was alone...

The sentries were heard talking outside the room and the door opened, Ryner stepping inside with Sephiras and Colran following behind. Once inside the door was closed behind them by the other guards. "It has been a full phoeb since you awoke, yet you refuse to give us any information at all...We do not like keeping you locked up like this, but for the safety of my people, we cannot trust you without knowing anything about you."

"I was telling you the truth from the start." The woman said honestly, sitting up and looking down at her handcuffs. "I honestly can't remember anything about myself or why I crashed, and if I did, I'd have told you by now!" She felt those same tears prick at her eyes again. "I don't have an identity, or a place to call my own, and since waking up, the only thing I've been able to remember is being captured before..."

"You were captured before?" Colran asked as Sephiras went over to her and mumbled for the woman to stare into a small light on the end of a stick. Since she was used to these small check-ups, she complied without resistance.

"Mmhm, by people with purple skin and glowing yellow eyes. Well, if the memory is accurate, I mean." The woman stated, and the three Olkari went silent in thought, Sephiras pausing her examination to ponder her words. "Please believe me...I know it must be hard, assuming the armor and ship I arrived in belonged to your enemy, the...Galra, right? But I am not one of them...I think."

She sighed and looked away, her chin trembling as she felt the frustration of not knowing anything about herself hit her like a brick wall. Not only was she no one, but she wasn't even worth trusting. "I don't want to be in this situation, I don't know who I am, or why I came here, or what I was trying to escape from, but please...Please believe me!" She choked out those last words and lifted her cuffed hands, covering her face with them as she sobbed.

Despite knowing it was a dangerous move, Ryner could n longer deny the sincerity in her words, no one was that good an actress, and the stress of the situation must have been building up for so long, that she just felt hopeless. "I...Will choose to believe your words." She stated, surprising the other two Olkari in the room. "And no one must live without an identity...Do you know where you're from?"

"No..."

Ryner sighed. "Then I'll inform you...You are a Tylyrion from the neighbouring planet Tylyrio, renowned for your engineer-" However just as Ryner started explaining what she was and where she was from, the stranger doubled over with a pained cry and gripped her skull with her clawed fingers.

"What is it?!" Sephiras asked, quickly looking her over for any signs of injury. "Where is the pain originating from, can you tell me?!"

Of course, it was then that the strange, sudden agony receded and the woman sat there, breathing heavily with wide eyes as she straightened up slightly and looked at Ryner like she had cured her of a terminal illness. "I...I saw Tylyrio in my head! I was in the pod, but I didn't want to be in there...It's such a beautiful planet! The mountains reached the clouds and the forests covered most of the surface area, except where there were rivers! I-I have a home!"

"Do you remember what happened next?"

"N-no...I'm sorry, that's all I saw, it was only for a second."

Ryner shook her head, she understood what was going on now. "You have nothing to apologize for...I believe you have Retrograde Amnesia, a type that erases past memories and can only be regained using certain triggers that pertain to that person. You must have taken a rather serious blow to the head when you crash-landed, and that's most likely where this issue has stemmed from, considering you remember everything after you awoke, but nothing from before."

The woman looked relatively hopeful, but confused as well. "So...I'll get my memories back?"

Ryner frowned. "I'm not sure...It is a very difficult thing to predict, some people regain them in a few days, though some don't regain them throughout their lifetimes..."

"Oh..." She looked down with a solemn twist of the lips. "I guess I need to be patient then."

"Did you remember your name, anything about yourself in that second?" Sephiras asked, her medical curiosity peaking at the idea of studying someone with a complicated mental block.

"I don't think so...It was just an image, and I didn't really notice anything else."

"If you were wearing a nametag when we found you, this would be far easier to figure out." The young female Olkari joked, and this pulled a joyless laugh from the strange woman's throat. "But you can't just walk around without a name while you're here."

"Sephiras has a point..." Colran mumbled sheepishly, playing with his spear as per usual. "Y-you need to have some kind of title, even if it's not your r-real one."

The woman's expression only darkened in her growing frustration and she sighed, pinching the bridge of her patterned nose. "I can't think of anything, without my memories or any idea what kind of person I was before, giving myself a name is difficult...It's really hard to concentrate on anything, actually."

"Then allow me to assist you." Ryner walked over to her and placed her finger on the wooden material of the handcuffs. "There's an old Olkari fable about a traveller from another world seeking solace here and creating the technology we use today, it's nothing but fiction, of course! But the name of that traveller was Ziera. Does that seem like a name you may enjoy?"

The woman watched in awe as the handcuffs opened when there was no mechanism to do so before Ryner touched them, then as she stroked her sore wrists, she mulled over the name suggested to her, before she gave them the first grin they had ever seen from her, bold and full of joyous energy. "That's perfect! Ziera...I love it, thank you!"

The elder smiled down at her guest who bound up, startling poor Colran into raising his spear, which forced Ryner to raise her hand to stop him before he hurt anyone. "Ziera, while you recover, will you assist us in protecting this planet from the Galra threat facing the universe?"

Ziera rubbed the back of her neck as her fangs gleamed in the light of the setting sun. "It would be my honor, Miss Ryner. Thank you for giving me a chance to prove myself."

"Excellent, then we must return your things and create some new, comfortable clothing for you to wear during your time here...Your armor is not fit to wear any longer." Ryner chuckled at her energy, it seemed all she needed was a little trust and a name, and she felt better. "But please, Ryner is enough, there is no need for formalities with me."

"Okay! I'm excited to see this village and the amazing technology you have, it looks fascinating!"

What a strange and unique woman...Whatever the reasons for her sudden crash, it was apparent that the Olkari had gained an interesting ally at least.

Only time would tell if they would regret it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review, I want to improve as a writer, and any comments or criticism will really help me towards that!
> 
> I'll see you in the next chapter!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Month = Phoeb


	2. The Deceitful King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ziera watched as the Paladins of Voltron left their ships after receiving the distress signal she and Ryner worked hard to create. With their help, will they finally rescue the Olkari's Leader, King Lubos, or will harm befall them as they fight against the Galra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> Hey guys, finally brought you chapter 1 of my Forgotten but not Lost fic! I'm actually surprised this took me so long, but at least I've managed to get it out now! I'm honestly terrified of writing this fic, because I've never gone so far out of canon before, but with how Voltron actually ended, I think we all can agree that I can't do any worse than that.
> 
> If you liked the ending by the way, I don't mind, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I just believe it could have ended in a way better way.
> 
> I can't say how, because it'll ruin the fic.
> 
> Enjoy!

The sun was setting slowly in the familiar forests of Olkarion, where Ziera, the amnesiac Tylyrion stood, hidden behind a tree as she observed the sentry bots of the Galra Empire making their usual patrol rounds. It had been many years since she had crash-landed and met Ryner, and she had done nothing but prove her loyalty ever since. Though it had been difficult at first, she even managed to make friends with the Olkari sentries that once distrusted her, and both Colren and Janze would chat with her often about even the smallest things.

She felt like she had a home here, even if it was not her birthplace, and she swore she would protect it until the end of her long, long life. However, despite being here for some time, and exposing herself to many different things in hopes of reclaiming some of her memories, there were only a few serious things she remembered that would stick with her forever.

She had a passion for technology and spent as much time as she could coming up with new inventions, which never seemed to work out when she tried to create them alone, in the end, she would always need advice and assistance from an Olkari citizen. Of course, she had succeeded in one invention, if the memory was correct. On her feet she wore a pair of pink, black and white hover-shoes that assisted her already boosted speed in battle, and she remembered that she had called them Skate-Overs.

She was also a suitable warrior and remembered a few situations where she could use her skills in battle, however, she had to be taught how to use a gun when she was appointed as a guard for the village she had once inconvenienced. Apparently, Tylyrion preferred blade-like weapons or even their own claws and teeth, going by what little combat she could recall engaging in.

Ziera quickly moved her hand to her ear as she ducked behind a tree to avoid a sentry bot that glanced in her direction for a moment, before walking off. She lifted her hand to an itchy com device in her rather large, thin-skinned ears that drooped like a dog's. "Melrak, do you read me?"

"I read you, Era. What's your status?"

Ziera smirked at the nickname and glanced out from behind the tree, to where a giant mechanical device resembling a cube was being created within the beautiful, futuristic city the Olkari once called home. At the sight of the many Olkari citizens being forced to work non-stop using threats of violence towards their King, Lubos, her stomach sank, and she felt disgust rise in her gut. "I'm just outside the city limits, at the edge of the forest-"

"Era, you know we're not meant to go that far!"

"I needed to see what the Galra were planning, I promise you, I haven't been caught!"

"...You're so reckless."

"You can scold me later." She stated, narrowing her eyes as the image of King Lubos faded and the Olkari worked harder than they did before. "Could you report to Ryner for me? The sentry bots and Galra soldiers are guarding this huge mechanical structure I've never seen before, using the Olkari left in the city as their own personal slaves."

"Tch, those bastards!"

"Language, Melrak. Those words offend the Divine Beings."

"...You really believe all that?"

Ziera rolled her eyes as they started going off topic, again, and she sighed, holding a flower-like gun in her other hand as she went silent. Another guard had heard a sound from around her area and paused to see what it was.

When nothing moved, apart from a bird, the machine continued its patrol.

"Don't start now, Melrak, just relay my message to Ryner...We need to come up with a plan to rescue your king and your people!"

"Copy that. Come back to the camp, you're already putting yourself in too much danger being there."

She giggled and nodded, slipping her gun back into it's holster before she pulled her black, pink and white goggles down to cover her eyes, both the shoes and accessory matching the spacesuit she wore on a regular basis. "Alright, I know when I'm crossing a line~!"

"Do you really?"

Ziera turned the com off as a rebuttal before she flicked a small switch on her right boot, and started lifting off the ground when a blue glow emanated from the bottom of the soles. With a kick backwards, like an ice skater would in the rink, she shot forward with incredible speed, skating through the brush like a professional.

It had taken her so long to get used to them again, but as the old Tylyrion saying went, 'You can teach something twice, but it only takes one success to retain the memory,' so she knew she would get the hang of it before too long.

'Funny...' She thought as she looked at the surroundings blurring past through the dark glass of her goggles. 'I've been here for so long, but all I can remember is a few important facts and silly little details that don't really tell me a lot about myself.' Her ombre eyes narrowed as a frown curled against her cat-like lips, her fang poking out on one side. 'Maybe there's only so much I can remember on this planet...I should start thinking about going home soon, even if it's just to visit and reclaim some of my identity.' She sighed. 'The guys are going to be so crushed...'

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sounds of space engines and skidded to a halt, floating slightly off the ground as she looked up to see the Olkari shoot arrows at five flying mechanical lions, which were being tethered down to the encampment. Letting out a rather cat-like hiss and gritting her sharp teeth, she crouched slightly and kicked off again, angled in a way that would increase her overall speed.

'Are we under attack, did the Galra see me and have sent some new, powerful weapons to wipe us out?!' Fear and panic made her usually quick heart beat faster and her eyes turned to slits without her knowledge, something that happened often during times of stress.

After a moment of rushing through the woods and maneuvering around branches, rocks, and other obstacles, Ziera finally reached the opening that lead to the village she now called home. However, as she broke through the barrier of the trees, she once again skidded to a halt as Ryner and the others stood there, cheering excitedly at the sight of the lions and five unknown pilots standing before their leader.

She could not have been more lost if she tried.

Ryner saw movement from the corner of her eye and looked over, smiling and waving Ziera over, who obeyed the request and switched off her Skate-Overs, walking towards the strangers and her fellow forest-dwellers. "Ah, Ziera, I'm glad you came back unharmed. Melrak told me about your findings  _and_  that you ventured too close to the city."

Her tone turned sharp at the end of her sentence and Ziera flinched like she had been scolded, then glared at the strong Olkari sentry stood at Ryner's side, who smirked back at her. "Did he now?"

"You told me to report to her, Era, that includes your location~."

"Ugh, you always take what I say too literally!" Ziera complained but did not dwell on it too long, instead, her focus returned to the new beings that had joined them, wearing odd armored spacesuits of various colors. "That aside, who are these people? I saw you bring them down and thought we were being attacked!"

"Oh, my manners are slipping." Ryner started, turning and gesturing to the group of people. "These are our saviors, Ziera. They are the Paladins of Voltron!"

Ziera looked slightly confused as she blinked and looked over at the humans, one of which, who wore black, stepped towards them. "Paladins of...Voltron? What's that, some kind of vigilante group?"

The man stopped before them and let out a soft laugh, removing his helmet and tucking it under his arm. His hair was black and shaved down with a white tuft sticking out in the front, and he had a scar slashed horizontally over his nose. "I guess you could say that." He held out his free hand for a formal shake. "My name is Takashi Shirogane or Shiro, we picked up your distress signal on our way through the star system and came to assist you in your emergency."

"Oh! That's awesome!" Ziera's energy seemed to bubble through then and she grinned excitedly, surprising the man greatly as she took his hand in both of her's and shook it. "My name's Ziera! I programmed the spores you saw! You must have some excellent technology to be able to decipher it so easily!"

" _You_ programmed the spores?" A short female wearing green armor called out from the group of Paladins. She quickly rushed forward and pulled off her own helmet, revealing her short brown hair and brown eyes framed by a pair of round glasses. "They were ingenious, how did you program them to begin with?!"

Ziera shook her head and let go of Shiro's hand, quickly making her way over to the lions standing by. "Nevermind those simple devices, where did you get these beautiful space crafts?!" She stroked the leg of the blue lion with an excited gleam in her ombre eyes. "They're like nothing I've ever seen!"

Ryner cleared her throat again and Melrak smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "My apologies for Ziera's rather forward behavior...She has a strong fascination for technology and engineering and sometimes it clouds her manners and judgment."

"Sounds like someone we know," Shiro said playfully, placing his hand on the green paladin's head, while the blue paladin went over to where Ziera was admiring his lion and started flashing her a flirtatious grin she did not pay attention to, his helmet under his arm. "But it's no problem, really."

"Yes, but...She should at least attempt to learn your names." Ryner looked to the Tylyrion woman and called out to her, making her freeze in her tracks like a child who had been told off by her mother. "Ziera, you must show our guests some kindness! You haven't even asked their names!"

"O-oh yeah!" Ziera said softly, looking a little embarrassed as she blushed and scratched at her head. "Ah, ha, ha...Sorry about that~" She turned to Lance, who was still flashing his trademark smirk at her, and held out a hand. "My name is Ziera, and you are?"

"Hey there, the name's Lance, but you can call me Darling~" Lance stated, dropping a line on her immediately as he flashed her a grin. She did not blush like he wanted her to, instead she just stared at him with confusion and slight discomfort.

"Wh-wha...?"

"Nevermind him." The red paladin said as he walked over and pulled off his helmet too, his black mullet-style hair flipping back behind his head as he looked up at her with his helmet tucked under his arm. "His name's Lance, and I'm Keith."

"Nice to meet you...?" She said with a questioning tone, unsure how to process this without it becoming awkward. "I'm assuming the person's armor color matches the lion they pilot, yes?"

"Yup!" The yellow paladin piped up, lifting off his helmet, where he had his hair pinned back by a sash around his forehead. He was the largest of the five, but the most fun to be around. "Name's Hunk, I pilot Yellow over there." He pointed his thumb at the second largest lion of the five, which had far more armor than any of the others.

"So that means, Keith pilots the Red Lion, Lance the Blue Lion, You the Yellow Lion, Shiro the Black Lion and..." She pointed to each paladin individually as she went through her little list, however, she stopped on the young woman wearing green. "Uhm, I never got your name." She stated, laughing shyly and scratching her cheek with a silly grin.

The girl smiled and turned, waving her hand sheepishly at the bold, yet strangely awkward alien before her. "Hi, I'm Pidge, and yes, I pilot the Green Lion. It's nice to meet you, Ziera."

"No, no, please! Call me Era, all my friends do~!" Ziera's tail swished happily behind her, covered completely by her spacesuit, even the tufts of fur on the end were hidden behind a teardrop-shaped dome to keep the air in. "So, did you build these lions, they're like nothing I've ever seen, and if their outer structure is anything to go by, I can only imagine what the inner mechanisms look like!"

"Uh, I don't think this is the time to be talking tech." Keith pointed out, everyone only now becoming aware that the sun had nearly set, leaving them in near darkness. "If we don't get out of here soon, whatever lives in these forests will start showing up."

"Yeah, and I don't plan on being forest alien food!" Hunk said with anxious jittering movements, looking around for any of these forest-dwelling creatures Keith was talking about.

"Nothing in this forest will cause you any harm, I have the best people guarding our home at all times," Ryner explained, then gestured in the direction of a faint glow in the distance, the lights from their little village. "But please, follow me, our small encampment is but a short walk this way."

~FbnL~

"When the Galra attacked, only a few of us escaped the cities..." Ryner started as they walked up a winding ascending path to a balcony that looked over the city built from trees and foliage. Ziera was stood by her friend's side as they stopped and looked out at the beautiful lights illuminating their homes, while the Paladins mirrored their action in awe from behind them. "We were forced to flee into the forest."

"How long have you lived like this?" Shiro asked, peeling his eyes from the view to look at the Olkari tribe leader.

"Many deca-phoebs, but as you can see our people are resilient!" Her tone turned from intense and serious to light and proud. "We never stopped evolving. Instead, we adapted our skills to the environment." She turned to them with a polite smile. "Now, follow me, we should make our way into the city, this is but a sample of our home."

Pidge, who had been captivated by the use of technology through plant life, followed as she and Ziera lead the group down the slope once again. "So that's how you were able to programme the spores!"

"Yes, our people created the spores but had no way to integrate our distress signal into the fibers it was made up of...Ziera had an idea of using our way of communicating with nature and machines to send a binary encoded message into the spores like injecting medicine into a patient. She then used that code, and a computer we manufactured to bind this message into the organic matter for others to decode and find." Ryner explained, confusing everyone but the young tech whizz and her trusted Tylyrion friend.

Ziera blushed and giggled, scratching at her cheek gently with her fanged grin gleaming softly in the blue/green lights of the city. "It was nothing really, just something I thought up when I noticed how the fibers reminded me of a wired substance I'd seen somewhere before that allowed code to be transferred from one machine to another."

"I wouldn't say that's nothing," Shiro stated as the youngest paladin almost shined with awe and excitement. "It's thanks to your quick thinking that we found your distress signal to begin with."

"Well, I'll do anything to help my friends." The aspiring engineer glanced back at her new human friends, looking shy, but proud at the same time. "I owe a lot of the Olkari, it's thanks to them that I've learned so much about myself and the world around me..." She looked up at the leafy roof of the forest, watching the stars glint through the gaps in the foliage. "I'll see to it that they reclaim their home from the Galra."

Though the sentiment could be taken as a metaphor of sorts, they weren't aware that she was being completely literal. She only knew this much about herself thanks to the friends she had made here, and the many interactions she had with them as a result. Thanks to them, she was a person again, whether she had all her memories or not.

The group finally reached the center of the city, where a large orb of light was positioned within the winding branches of a tree trunk which illuminated the entire area. The two who had seen this many times before watched as Pidge made a sound of amazement and ran past them, stopping by a member of the tribe who used sticks to create a dragonfly drone to scout out the city without them being caught.

The drone was then sent off to do its duty, stopping by Pidge's face to scan it for a second before it continued on its way. "Coran was right, Ryner." She started as she watched it vanish from sight. "You are the most incredible engineers in the universe! To be able to switch from working with precision machinery to a bunch of sticks..!"

Ryner smiled and followed her gaze, despite the dragonfly drone no longer being in view. "Nature's designs are far superior than any we could devise."

Pidge's smile turned into a smirk as she imagined herself working with sticks and leaves. "No offense, but I'll take my computer over a tree, any day!"

Ziera giggled and covered her mouth with the side of her gloved finger, closing her eyes as she did so. "I know that feeling~ I much prefer an interface created by man, rather than one created by the wind." She glanced at the youngest pilot, who shot her a knowing smile. "Especially during the colder seasons, when the greenery is harder to manipulate in its dead state."

Though Shiro was glad Pidge found someone to converse with over her love of technology, he interrupted with more pressing matters. "You three can talk science later, let's assemble Voltron and get rid of these Galra invaders."

Both Ryner and Ziera sombred up when the invaders were mentioned, but it was the Olkari tribe leader that spoke. "It's not that simple, I'm afraid." She started, and Ziera nodded silently. "The Galra have our leader, Lubos."

At that second, every member of the Olkari race within hearing distance echoed the name of their leader, as if praying for his safety.

Ryner didn't react to this, it was a regular part of their tradition and respects towards their superiors. "If you attack, who knows what they'll do to him!"

"Well then, we'll just have to rescue him." Shiro proclaimed, his words and expression displaying more conviction than any words could have expressed. Ryner was surprised by the level of determination in his tone, and both she and her beloved Tylyrion friend believed his words with all of their hearts, sharing a look and a nod.

"If that's the case, you should follow me," Ziera said, smiling with a cat-like curl of the lips as she gestured for them to walk with her. "You can't go in there without collecting some data first, and we have just what you need to do that~!"

~FbnL~

"Uhm...Ryner?" Keith started as they stood in the deeper section of the forest, where many different types of plants grew and thrived, more so than in the village itself. "Where are we?" The trees were far taller here than in the part of the forest they had originally landed in, but not as tall as the ones altered for their homes to grow out of.

"This is the armory," Ryner informed them, while Pidge leaned to the side to see from behind the older Olkari leader, watching as a female member of her species put her hand into a flower and using her engineering powers, turned said flower into a gun connected to her by the arm.

Ziera grinned excitedly and proudly as the laser shot into the darkness of the forest and the youngest tech-head paladin squealed excitedly, while the others had wide eyes filled with surprise.

"Hey, Janze!" The Tylyrion shouted, looking over at another Olkari male, who was short and slim, and working on a full set of flower guns in the background. He looked up when he heard the familiar voice and waved to his friend who lifted her arm high into the air and waved back. "Come and meet my new friends! They've got the best ships I've ever seen!"

Janze's eyes gleamed with scientific curiosity and he placed his newest flower weapon down before he ran over to them. "Wh-what kind of ships are they?!"

"They're ships shaped like lions and each has a different color that portrays their pilot!" Ziera exclaimed, making erratic, happy gestures. "Like, if Shiro's wearing black armor, he pilots the black lion! It's super cool and I can't wait to ask them more about them!"

Ryner cleared her throat as Janze went to respond with the same energy as their dear ally. "Though I agree that the Paladins of Voltron and the Lions themselves are quite marvelous, we should get to work if we plan on saving King Lubos."

"O-oh yeah..." The cat-like female mumbled, rubbing the back of her head with a shy grin, her cheeks darkening with a black-ish tint as she became embarrassed. "Heh, sorry~!"

Ryner chuckled and walked over to a tree, placing her hand against the bark, they all watched with awe as a glowing light consumed the trunk and forced a giant fruit to grow on it's highest branch. After a moment, the large nut-like shell fell and hit the floor hard, before it formed arms and legs. It was a mech-suit made of wood.

"Cool." Lance squeaked out.

"Uh, can I...Get one of those?" Keith asked.

Ryner stepped over to a blue flower and waved her hand over it, opening its petals and revealing some strange forehead crown-like devices inside. "Of course, you can each have one." She said kindly, taking them and handing each of the paladins their own, and even one to Ziera, who seemed a little hesitant, despite her love for technology. "Now, the key to operating it is understanding that the nano-cellulose responds to electrical impulses from the neural pathways connected through this."

The blue paladin looked at the device in his hands, lost and confused as the technological talk wrecked his rather arrogant brain. "Do what now?" He asked as Hunk licked his and caught Lance's attention with a hum.

"Makes my tongue itchy." The yellow paladin slurred as a result.

"That's your interface?" Pidge asked curiously as she slipped the device onto her head, Ziera doing the same thing.

Ryner nodded. "Of course all commands must come as Binary coded messages." She explained as she watched the shortest and youngest of the Voltron heroes walk over to a tree and place her hand on it.

"Sooo...Like this?" Closing her eyes as she did just as the Olkari tribe leader suggested. The headpiece suddenly glowed and sent power into the young girl's hand, which then traveled up the tree and into the hard fruit above, which fell and became the same type of mech that Ryner herself had created.

"Yeah! That's it!" Ziera said brightly as she walked up to a different tree, wearing the wooden headpiece with her goggles now hanging around her neck, and placed her clawed hand against the surface. Doing the same thing that Pidge did, she closed her eyes and quite quickly managed to draw power into the trunk and up to the fruit. However as the fruit fell to the ground, instead of becoming a mech, it shattered on impact, making the attempt a failure. "Oh come on..." She sulked, pouting as she turned to the wrecked fruit. "I don't get why this keeps happening, I understand code like I do the universal language!" She sighed and let go of the tree, taking the headband off and adjusting her goggles back into their original position. "I must have missed something in my Binary coded message that caused a fault in the creation process."

Ryner frowned from within the cockpit of her mech suit. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it eventually, Ziera. After all, you're far more suited to the theoretical side of science than the practical."

"Yeah, but I don't want to be a theoretical scientist, I want to be in inventor..." She looked at Pidge who was attempting to climb into her mech which was a little too high for her. "Hey, Pidge?"

The girl stopped her attempt and turned around with a curious gleam in her eyes. "Hm? Something wrong, Ziera?"

"After we save this planet from the Galra, could you give me some pointers on using that headpiece, it might be easier for me to learn if someone who has just learned to use it too teaches me the trick behind it."

"Oh, yeah sure! It'd be nice to learn more about this device anyway, maybe we could both help each other!"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Ziera grinned excitedly but was interrupted by Lance's voice.

"I think mine is just a tree." He stated, his hand against the trunk, nothing happening for any of the other paladins.

Ryner nodded in acceptance and turned to Pidge who had just been helped into the mech suit by Shiro. "You must have a deep connection with nature."

Pidge shrugged. "Not really, my allergies and pale skin don't mix with outdoor living."

Shiro, now turned to face the older Olkari leader, crossed his arms with a smirk. "Pidge is our resident tech expert."

"Heh, that explains everything then!" Ziera butted in from beside Ryner's mech, before she pressed the button on her shoes and lifted from the ground, hover skating her way over to the other techie. "I'd love to find time to pick your brain for some invention ideas! I might not be as big an expert as you, but I love technology and you must have seen some incredible things out in space!"

"Hmmmm, alright, but only if you tell me your process for inventing your hover shoes, they look so simple, yet the mechanics behind them have to be complicated for them to be so accurately controlled without any form of remote handling!" Pidge replied, eyes gleaming as she looked at the Skate-Overs.

Ziera hummed and looked at her shoes, then grinned and spun around on the spot, placing her hands on her hips when she came to a halt. "I'd be glad to! It may take me some time though, I can't remember how exactly I made them to begin with."

"How is that possible? You invented them, right? You should be able to remember the basic process behind their design."

"Ah, ha, ha..." The cat-like female awkwardly toyed with the goggles that rested on her muted cyan locks, sweat sliding down her cheek. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

Silence met the two in confusion and Ryner decided to reclaim the conversation, she understood why Ziera was not explaining her lacking memory, considering their circumstances and the other task that awaited them. "Like the Olkari, you understand that at the deepest level, trees, metal, you, me...We're all made up of the same cosmic dust, all arranged by the laws of mathematics."

With her words directed at Pidge, she watched as the poor girl's expression dropped, slightly confused by her words, because she barely understood nature. "Does this mean I should start gardening?" She asked, reluctant for an answer.

"It means you're going to need to give your friends a ride." She stated, looking over at the other paladins, who had given up trying to get their own mechs to fall. Even Shiro had not succeeded, not that it mattered, he was fine with being a passenger.

"Aw man..." Lance whined as he and the others started climbing into the two mechs. "I wanted to drive."

Pidge was just about to close the door to the machine when she spotted Ziera slipping on her goggles. "Hey, don't you need a lift too?" She asked, getting a bright smile in response.

"Nope~ I'll be able to keep up with you guys on foot!" She stated confidently, causing the younger tech junkie to arch a brow skeptically. "Ryner, do you have your communicator activated yet?"

Ryner nodded as she typed on her large control monitor. "Yes, I've patched it into your own communication device, you should be able to hear me once I close the hatch."

"Excellent, thanks." Ziera rolled her shoulders and kept herself balanced in the air as she watched the doors close, Pidge taking slightly longer as she tried to think of what her hover shoes were capable of if she did not need a lift, before doing the same. Then the two mechs took off at a rapid pace towards the forest's edge.

The Tylyrion's goggles gleamed as a smirk crossed her fanged lips, then she crouched and kicked off into an ice-skating motion, shocking everyone as she caught up to them with ease, even going so far as to salute at Pidge's mech.

Once Ryner saw Ziera's figure alongside them, her spirits rose with motivation and she shouted gleefully. "This way, to the edge of the forest! To save our king!"

"I'll lead the way!" The tech-savvy feline called out, speeding up so she was in front of the two. "I know a spot we can scout from without being caught!"

And with that, they followed her to the edge of the forest, where they would hide away and get a feel for the situation.

~FbnL~

It did not take them too long to reach the forest's border, and Ziera tucked away behind a tree while the two mechs situated themselves behind some large bushes and shrubberies, since they could not pull off the slim tree, hiding position with their round shapes. However, they had managed to cloak themselves pretty well, despite this obstacle.

Ziera had her goggles on, looking at the small screens that showed u on the right eye, closing the left so she could examine the images Ryner was showing them all, each of which was different sections of the city and the sentries that guarded that area. "Their headquarters are impenetrable from the ground." The Olkari tribe leader started, while the vision shifted from the lower quarters to a large tower situated right in the center of the metropolis. "But there is one way in. A small opening in the roof." A smaller picture of the hole gaping at the center of the large roof appeared, which Ziera had to squint to see. "It goes all the way down to an open courtyard."

"That's quite a drop," Keith stated.

"But there, you will have total access to the building. The hard part will be getting onto the roof, undetected."

"That won't be a problem," Shiro confirmed with a smirk, having the utmost confidence in his small, green comrade.

However, Hunk, who had been silent this whole time, leaned forward curiously. "Hey, hey, what's that?" He asked as Pidge zoomed the focus of their shared sight onto a large cube on the side of the landing bay near the tower, it was simple in appearance, with purple markings pulsing on its surface. "Is that part of the building?"

"That's the structure I spotted before during my patrol!" Ziera pointed out, leaning forward slightly as if that would increase the size of the image, it did not. "I don't understand what it is, or what it does, but they were forcing the Olkari left in the city to work their fingers to the bone to complete it..."

"My Lubos!" Ryner gasped, eyes wide as she stared at the familiar structure. "It can't be!"

Pidge blinked as the appearance of the odd design sparked a memory. "Hey!" She started, sharing a small video of herself to the other two interfaces. "That looks like the cube Coran gave me!" To prove this, she pulled a small black cube with a green line around its center out of her pocket, and indeed, it looked exactly like the cube before them, apart from the green hue.

"I haven't seen one of those in many deca-phoebs!" Ryner said as nostalgia blossomed in her heart. "We used to play with those as children!" She returned her gaze to the large replica of the toy. "But this...? Only King Lubos could have designed one  _that_  size!"

"Why would he do that?" Keith asked.

However, it was Ziera that responded. "I saw them showing an image of this Lubos to the Olkari they were forcing to build that thing...Maybe they tortured him and got him to not only reveal his designs but recreate them as weapons for the Galra to take advantage of..." Her expression twisted with disgust and she yanked her goggles up and onto her forehead. "Those monsters..."

"...Indeed." Ryner spoke softly, anger in her eyes. "And from the looks of it, it's almost finished..."

The entire group went quiet for a moment as the heavy situation settled in the atmosphere between them. However, it was Shiro that broke through the silence. "Okay we need to act fast, Everyone back to base...I have a plan." He looked down at the older woman steering the machine. "Ryner, can you take us back to our lions?"

"Of course." Ryner turned her mech around and Pidge followed, both setting off back towards the camp that Ziera called home, while the woman in question turned on her Skate-Overs and followed behind with fluid movements. She had no intention of letting them go alone, even if she no longer had a functioning ship, she could still be of use.

"While we're heading back, I'll explain." The veteran pilot began, looking ahead as he spoke. "First we'll need to get to the top of that tower. Since the Green Lion has stealth capabilities, Pidge, you're the dropship. You'll take Keith, Hunk, Lance and me to the roof, then drop back to a safe position."

"Got it!"

Shiro nodded with approval. "After the drop, we'll use a sensor to scan the building for any Olkari bio-rhythms. Pidge will then go through the information and send it to our helmet visors. From there we can safely find Lubos and rescue him without getting into any possible fights along the way."

Just after he finished explaining the plan, they arrived at the camp and the mechs opened to Ziera flying out in front of them and skidding to a halt facing the two drivers and the rest of the paladins, her eyes hidden behind the dark goggles, but determined non-the-less. "Wait!" She started, turning off her boots so she could land safely. "I want to come with you."

"What?" Shiro started, but it was Ryner who continued, standing up in surprise, almost crushing the two stood behind her.

"Ziera, you can't! You haven't been in a fight since you arrived here, you're bound to get hurt, you're safer here where you can protect my people!"

Ziera smiled gratefully at the older woman who gave her a home and a name when she had nothing. "I can't, Ryner...I know I haven't been in a fight for a very long time, but...I'm a warrior, I know I am." She gripped the odd pendant hanging around her neck as if it was her heart. "You gave me a place to call my own when I had nothing, and I can't just keep relying on you for everything anymore...Please, let me repay you for everything by bringing your leader back safely."

"Uhhh, no offense, but if you're rusty, you'd only slow us down." Lance pointed out, looking a little skeptical. "We can handle this alone."

"You want to avoid a fight, right?" The Tylyrion asked, looking at Shiro as she pulled her goggles up to her forehead, revealing her strong will for them to see. "The Tylyrion have large ears like this for a reason." Her floppy ears lifted up, resembling that of a large cat's, twitching at any noise she could hear, all the way up to the edge of the forest. "I can detect sounds all the way to the city, take me with you, and I can guide you away from sentries and lead you down the safest route to where they're keeping Lubos."

"Whoa." Hunk said simply, pointing at her. "Those ears are cool."

"Thank you!" Ziera blushed with a bright smile, but it fell when she looked at their leader again, who was contemplating her request. "All I ask is that you give me the chance to help, if I believe I'll be a burden, then I will back off and go back to the Green Lion...I may be a little energetic for most people, but I know my own limits."

Melrak laughed in the distance and her ears drooped, her blush darkening before she spun around. "Melrak, you're not helping!"

"It would be useful to have a sound radar too." Pidge chimed in. "If we scanned for bio-rhythms then I won't be able to locate sentries, combine that with her hearing, then you'd not only be able to avoid enemies, but would also be able to plan an ambush if Lubos is heavily guarded."

"Hmmm..." The black paladin hummed thoughtfully and stroked his broad chin, looking down at the ground as he mused his friend's words. "You have a point...Being able to tell how many enemies there are, and where they're coming from is a valuable asset...Alright."

Ziera's expression brightened while Ryner's turned to horrified shock. "I must protest, Ziera you've already lost so much, if you get hurt, you could lose even more of your memories!"

The paladins shared a look of confusion as Ziera's expression twisted with discomfort before she sighed and walked over to the older looking woman who hopped out of the mech to stand at eye-level with her friend. "I know you're worried, Ryner, but I'll be fine. Not only am I fast, but I have the Paladins of Voltron on my side! The Galra won't know what hit them!"

Ryner still seemed reluctant, but as the paladins all hopped out of the mechs, Shiro placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll keep her safe."

"...Alright. Promise me you won't try anything reckless."

Ziera nodded and pulled her flower gun out of its holster, showing it off. "Don't worry, I'll be careful, but if anything does happen, I know how to use this."

"I know you do, come back safely, whether you can save our king or not."

"I will, and I won't be returning alone, I can guarantee that."

With a nervous, but grateful wave, Ziera followed the Paladins to the Green Lion, her heart hammering in her chest, this would be the first time she had engaged in anything other than scouting duty or tech support since she arrived, and she would be lying if she said she was not even a little bit scared.

Of course, all of those fears and 'what-ifs' were forgotten the moment the Green Lion lowered its head and opened its mouth, revealing a doorway that lead inside. She immediately switched back to nerd-mode and excitedly clapped her hands together with a bright grin. "I can't wait to see how your beautiful ship works, Pidge!" She exclaimed as Pidge smiled and walked ahead of her, behind the others, so she could lead Ziera through the lion, as it could be complicated.

"Yeah, when I first got her, I was exactly the same! She's a beautiful piece of machinery that can do so much more than anything Earth has invented over the past century!" The younger tech-expert said, stroking the inside of the lion's cheek as she walked up the tongue and opened the door, with her Tylyrion friend following behind. "The best part is, she's not just a machine, she's  _alive_ , I can feel her heart, hear her soul. That's what makes her so special."

"Whoa..." Ziera breathed softly, turning and walking backwards as the mouth closed and the two joined the other Paladins on the elevator to the main section of the ship. "No wonder Ryner was so excited when you guys arrived if you're able to do this much with only one of the five lions!"

Of course, Lance had to butt in with another lame attempt at flirting. That irritating, unwelcome smirk on his lips as he eyed the cat-like woman. "If you think Green's impressive, I should take you on a ride in Blue! You won't find a smoother ride anywhere in the universe!"

"Yeah, because we all know you're  _such_  a good pilot," Keith stated, arching a brow as he remembered his first time in the Blue Lion.

Before Lance could retort, Shiro butted in. "Alright, that's enough." He said, stepping back as the two females were pushed in his direction due to the elevator doors closing. "Once we get to the main hangar, Pidge'll head to the control station so we can get ready for the drop into the tower." He looked down at Ziera who hummed when she felt eyes on the back of her head, turning. "Do you have a jetpack or anything that will slow your decent?"

"Hm? Oh yeah!" Ziera smiled and lifted her leg slightly, pointing to her beloved boots. "My Skate-Overs act as my jetpack too, if I flick the switch just in time, it'll slow my fall. I can't use them for conventional flight, but I can use them as a parachute, in some ways, though parachute is a very primitive word for lessening the velocity of my decent."

Shiro smiled and nodded as the elevator opened and they shuffled out, relieved to be out of the small space made for one or two people, not a group of six. Pidge, however, didn't leave the small space, waving at them as she stayed situated inside. "I better get to my station, give me the signal when you're ready to drop, okay?"

"Yup," Hunk confirmed, waving back as the elevator closed and Pidge ascended towards the head of the lion. "Sooooo, where's this hangar then?" He asked, getting strange looks from the other paladins. "What? Every lion is different right, so maybe the hangar's in Green's butt, I dunno."

Shiro chuckled and started walking towards their required location. "I highly doubt that."

"You don't know, we could be dropped out of Green's butt!"

"Would you stop saying that?" Lance asked, grimacing at the unsightly image of being dropped like a heavy pile of...Lion droppings.

Thankfully, that was not the case, as the hangar was in the lion's chest, as it was with all the others.

~FbnL~

It took less than ten minutes for the five waiting in the small room with the sealed floor to finally hear from Pidge, who's young voice echoed through the speakers in the corners of the room. " _Infiltration successful, we're heading up to the tower now, let me know when you're ready and I'll open the floor for you!_ "

"Alright team, you know the plan." Shiro started, standing and slipping his helmet on, while the others did the same and Ziera slipped her goggles over her eyes, having left her actual helmet at home. "We go in, set up the sensor, get Lubos' location, and secure his safety without engaging the enemy and escape unharmed, is that clear?"

"Crystal," Keith confirmed, looking far more ready for this than any of the others, he was a true soldier.

"Ziera, are you ready?" The salt and pepper haired leader glanced over at her, and she hummed, looking back with surprised, hidden, eyes.

"Uh, yeah! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, we're about to drop from a dangerous height into a small hole at the top of a building." Hunk pointed out, gesturing vaguely with his hands. "I've done this before, and even I'm a little nervous!"

"Oh!" Ziera giggled and shook her head, her ears rising slightly, showing her lack of fear. If they had been tucked back, she would have been frightened. "Nah, don't worry about me! For fun, I'd zip line across trees with Melrak and the others, and we'd be really high up with no safety net or anything! I'm not scared of heights at all!"

Quite amusing, considering the reason for her memory loss involved crashing from an unimaginable height.

"Right, that's good to hear." Shiro chimed in, holding onto the handle above his head as the others followed suit. "Pidge, we're ready, open the hatch."

" _Roger!_ "

They all watched as the floor beneath their feet hissed and opened slowly, first Hunk, Lance and Keith were left suspended in the air, holding the handle above their heads as their feet just hung there, no longer supported by the steel plate. After a second, Shiro and Ziera were in the same position, and finally, it was at that moment that the opening to the inside of the tower lined up perfectly.

"Alright team, let's rescue their leader," Shiro called out to them over the loud, whipping wind, and with that, they all let go and fell rapidly from the lion's chest, into the tower and down towards the ground floor. About halfway into the decent, the four paladins activated their jetpacks and slowed their fall while Ziera turned on her Skate-Overs and did the same, all of them landing softly without any injuries.

The group made no noise as Shiro took out the small sensor and activated it, watching as the tiny device opened out into a medium sized scanner that lit up the room as it took the information it could read from the entire building. Once it was done, and the information had automatically been sent to Pidge, Shiro turned the sensor off and put it on his belt once more.

A moment later, their visors and Ziera's goggles lit up with the location of Lubos' prison, and they all kicked off in the direction they needed to head towards to reach it. Ziera lead the way, and more than once she halted them and held up her hand, listening as sentry after sentry walked past their location without detecting them.

Eventually, they came to the room that was lit up on their visors and switched off the images as they heard loud, traumatic crying inside that echoed through the vast halls. "What are they doing to him in there?" The cat-like tech junkie whispered, grimacing at the very idea of what kinds of torture he had been through.

"I don't know, but he won't have to live through it anymore," Keith stated, and Shiro nodded, unlocking the door using his robotic hand before the group slipped inside and snuck over to a nearby wall to see exactly what was going on.

Not one of them expected the sight that they were met with. Lubos was sat on a large, comfortable chair with food on a platter nearby, one of his loyal people stood at his side, cuffed and suffering, while the king lounged with a tv show projected on a large screen right in front of him. "Oh, betrayal!" The rather dramatic ruler cried out, sobbing away, unaware of their presence. "She loves you!"

They all shared a look of disbelief, and Ziera stepped out first, with the others following behind. "King Lubos, right?" She asked, getting both the servant and the king's attention.

"Yes, who're you?" He asked, looking at the paladins who had their weapons out in case of unknown sentries nearby. "The jesters I requested?"

"Uhm..." Lance started, looking just as confused as the others. "We're here to, like, rescue you...?"

The rotund ruler's expression when from curiosity to intense in a matter of seconds, and while his servant seemed pleased about their arrival, he, on the other hand, pressed a button under his throne to alert the Galra that his rescuers were here.

While he stood, the wall on the opposite side of the large room opened up and several robotic soldiers rushed out and stood in line, pointing their guns straight for the paladins and the Tylyrion that had accompanied them, now brandishing her weapon as well. "You could've just said 'no thanks!'" Hunk whined, not wanting to get into a fight.

A living soldier stepped out from behind the sentries, the commander in charge of the Galra that had taken over the planet, he stood before them, confident he could win as a large smirk stretched across his purple lips. "Looks like someone came to rescue you, Lubos." He jeered, enjoying this situation far too much to be considered normal.

Ziera's expression went from serious to pained anger as she gritted her teeth hard and clenched her fist around the handle of her gun, finger poised on the trigger as Shiro shunned the cowardly King. "You turned your back on your people to save your own skin..."

"I'm doing this for my people!" Lubos argued a blatant lie. "They wanted to fight the Galra, but they're too powerful! The Galra could destroy us..."

"You let your own people be enslaved and forced to work on some super-weapon...To save them?" Ziera asked, shooting a vicious glare to the man she had heard so many great things about, only to find them all to be false. "Don't even go there! Your people are suffering, and you've only made this worse by selling them out to your enemy!"

"Don't make me the bad guy!" The king pointed viciously at the commander of the fleet. "He forced me to do it!"

"Did he force feed you too?" Lance quipped, silencing the ignorant ruler.

Keith had, had enough. "You're no king!" He kicked off towards Lubos, who attempted to run away from the advancing red paladin, only for his cuffed servant to shove into him, sending the larger Olkari stumbling back and into Keith's grasp, the older teen now holding his Bayard to Lubos' throat. "Okay, we're walking outta here! Anyone tries to stop us, and Lubos gets it!"

His threat was not well received by the others on his team. "Whoa, K-Keith!" Shiro started.

"That came outta nowhere!" Lance chimed in.

"L-L'sai, what're you doing?!" The cowardly leader asked, too scared to move out of fear of being killed.

The other Olkari male stood in the room glared at Lubos "You betrayed our people. I can't live this lie anymore."

Keith pulled the large Olkari male closer and lifted his Bayard a little higher. "You don't want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?" He stated, trying to find any and all ways around a deadly situation.

But he underestimated his enemy. "Oh, be my guest." The vicious commander said, his large lower fangs gleaming with his cruel smile. "His work is done, the cube is complete."

"What?!" Lubos cried out, sweat pouring down his forehead as his fear tripled instantaneously. "B-but, I thought we had a deal?!"

"Guards, put them all out of their misery!" The commander's order was all the sentries needed to lift their weapons and take aim. Ziera panicked and as a reaction, she looked down the sight and was ready to fire if necessary.

However, that was not needed, as a large beam of blue light shot through the room and tore a hole into the wall, where the Green Lion's adorable features came into view, and Pidge's lighthearted voice called into their comms. " _Ride is here~!_ "

The Galra commander sneered angrily, his metallic, red eye glowing brighter with his rage. "Engage the cube, take down Voltron!" He roared, as his sentries shot at the paladins and their 'guests.' Ziera went to fire back after a shot just missed her ear, but Shiro shoved her away from the line of fire, keeping her and the L'sai safe from oncoming lasers using his shield.

Once they managed to get to the edge of the building, Hunk and Lance grabbed the king, while Shiro took L'sai. The group then used their jetpacks to launch all of them over the gap and onto the back of the green machine. Ziera launched in time with Shiro using her Skate-Overs to glide across the gap, just making the distance before her weight affected her flight path. Then she and Hunk took aim and started firing at the sentries as the lion flew upwards and into the sky.

But that was not the end of it, they all heard a soft rumble and looked to where the cube had been situated, it had been activated and was currently lifting off the ground. "The cube is operational! We've got to get back to the other lions and form Voltron!"

" _On it!_ " Pidge called back through their earpieces, picking up the pace as everyone slipped into the top hatch of the lion's main hangar, before the youngest pilot hit the thrusters and shot off towards the secret camp Ryner commanded.

They landed quite quickly, with said tribe leader and the others waiting below, and when the mouth of the lion opened, Ziera looked down with regret before she shoved Lubos to the ground outside of the feline's jaw. "Ziera, what is the meaning of this?" Ryner cried out, stepping forward with concern, but halted when Ziera shook her head. "What's going on?"

"While your countrymen starved, King Lubos was well taken care of by the Galra." Shiro stated, looking at the large 'ruler' with disgust lacing his black eyes, while said ruler just lowered his head with shame. "He willingly helped them build that cube, willingly helped to enslave his own people!"

Horrified gasps and cries came from the Olkari surrounding them, and Colren looked sickened and ashamed to have called Lubos his king, while Melrak was furious and Sephira was on the verge of tears. Janze could not quite believe it and stood there, shaking his head with shock written across his features.

To think their king would be so cowardly and selfish, when the Olkari way was of peace, courage and kindness...It was a devastating turn of events, to say the least.

"I know you're devastated..." The leader of Voltron continued. "But it's time to be strong and use your Olkari spirit to fight alongside Voltron and take back your planet!"

Ryner's own soft horror wiped away when the words Shiro shared became passionate, wanting them to be free as much as they did. "Lubos!" She snapped, glaring at the king who flinched back in fear. "How could you?!"

"I-I was only trying to-"

"Enough!" Ryner watched as he jumped back in surprise, but she dared not give him any more of her time, instead, she turned to the others surrounding her. "We must free our people!"

Ziera listened as everyone cheered, before she stepped towards the woman who had given her a name, and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Ryner...Lubos is no longer fit to be called 'king...'" She started, ignoring his complaints as she gave Ryner a soft, gentle smile. "While he gorged himself, you remained here, protecting what was really important...I might be an outsider, but I think I speak for all of us when I say you are the rightful leader the Olkari need."

"Wh-what?" The elderly woman gasped with wide eyes, turning her attention to the others of her tribe, who were nodding and agreeing with similar smiles on her their face. "I'm sure there are others far more qualified than myself."

"Qualifications don't matter...You have everyone's trust, and you put them before yourself, I'd say that makes you a great leader."

Ziera looked to the paladins, who also nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly to the words the young Tylyrion uttered. Ryner considered the request, then nodded.

"Alright, I will take command...However, Ziera, you are no outsider, and we need your help to bring back peace to our home." The newly-appointed Olkari leader stated, placing her hand on Ziera's shoulder with a smile of her own. "Will you help me?"

"Do you even need to ask? I will stand by you for as long as I live, and we both know that I'm not going anywhere for a  _long_ time~!"

Ryner chuckled and nodded, then turned her attention to Shiro and the others. "What should we do?"

It was finally time to take back Olkarion and bring about an age of peace and kinship, at long last.

Without Voltron, this change would not be possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Whew, this was a long one! Please review, every comment or piece of criticism helps me become a better writer and I appreciate you all!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Deca-Phoeb = Year
> 
> Phoeb = Month


	3. Fighting Fire with Foliage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Lubos rescued, it's time to bring the fight to the Galra and bring peace back to the Olkari once and for all. But something is on Ziera's mind, and she can't rest easy until she tells the others what it is...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2: Fighting Fire with Foliage
> 
> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> Hey guys, thanks to a kind beta reader, she knows who she is, I haven't needed to proof read this chapter, and I've gained a small confidence boost from it too! I hope you guys enjoy it just like she did!
> 
> Thank you for everything!
> 
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 2: Fighting Fire with Foliage**

The time had come for Ziera, Ryner, the Paladins and the Olkari tribe to take back the city at long last, thanks to the human heroes they had finally 'rescued' Lubos, who was now resting in a holding cell within the largest tree tower the forest camp had to offer. Now all that remained was to drive out the Galra forces that had taken over and destroy the cube weapon they had created.

Ziera watched as the Paladins got into their lions and lifted into the air and high into the sky. Of course, her jaw dropped when the five lions merged together and formed a large robotic man, the one they call Voltron. "Their ships can  _combine_?!" She cried out, pointing at the machine as it flew off in search of the cube.

"Yes," Ryner said, nodding with a smile as she glanced at her faithful Tylyrion friend. "Ten thousand years ago, the leader of Altea, King Alfor created the five lions that combine into Voltron. Because of that, and its incredible endurance and strength, Voltron has become the defender of the universe!"

"Wow..." The tech-junkie turned back to the sky and watched as the giant machine fought the cube with effortless attacks. Of course, her awe was broken by her excitement as her eyes lit up. "I can't wait to fully inspect the craftsmanship of that beautiful spacecraft!"

She jumped when a hand touched her shoulder, and glanced back to see Melrak stood there, smirking with exasperation. "We get it, Ziera, you're a nerd. C'mon, we've got to get kitted out for the fight!"

"O-oh! Ahaha~!" The Tylyrion scratched her cheek softly as she blushed, she was fangirling over machinery again, wasn't she? "Alright, I'll put that thought aside for now!" She puffed up her chest and clenched her fists with determination. "Right now, we've got a city to take back!"

"Th-that's right!" Colren stammered from within the masses of other Olkari troops, of course, he carefully and awkwardly pushed his way through so he was stood by his best friend, Sephira. "I-I won't get scared this time, as long as Ziera's leading the fight, we'll be fine?"

"Eh?"

Ziera turned her attention to Ryner, who smiled and placed her hand on the alien feline's other shoulder. "If I am to take command, then I want you leading the fight. None of this would be happening had you not assisted in creating the distress signal, and you have proven to be a brave warrior on the inside."

"Ryner..." She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat and shot her friends a bright, confident grin. "Alright! Let's head to the armory, we can't take back your home without the right equipment!"

"Atta girl!" Melrak boomed, slapping her back proudly, only to flinch back when his best friend hissed in pain from his over-zealous response. "Ah...Sorry!"

~FbnL~

With haste, they all headed to the armory, filling the large expanse of space with many soldiers ready to lay their life on the line for the sake of those still trapped in the Galra's tight grasp. Some were creating mech suits for themselves, while others took to collecting spears and creating flower blasters to ensure they could take out as many sentries as possible from a safe distance.

Ziera had gone back to her home, as she lived close to the large space, and was no wearing the space helmet she collected so she could protect her head from laser fire. No longer would she be known as the tech-junkie, until the fight was over, she would be the warrior she somewhat remembered.

On that note, the young woman looked up into the sky as the cube and Voltron flew overhead, getting several of their best soldiers' attention in the process. She watched with wide, ombre, eyes as the man-like machine created a sword and slashed the square weapon into four separate pieces, only for the now smaller cubes to start functioning again, increasing their firing rate.

'Even still...' Her glove-clad fist clenched tightly, shaking with the tension as she gritted her teeth at the sight. 'I wish there was something I could do to help them...!'

"Ziera."

The feline hummed and turned around to see Janze holding a large flower blaster out to her, smiling. "I thought since you had trouble getting the interface to work, you could use some help making a better gun for the fight."

"Janze, that's so kind of you!" Ziera excitedly took the flower gun and inspected it, before slipping it onto her arm, where it latched around her elbow with heavy, durable vines that locked together. "Is there a way to remove it once we take back the city?"

"Not without the interface, once we're done, I'll take it off for you."

"Thanks, I'll get the hang of it someday~!"

"I know you will!" Janze smiled brightly and went back to creating flower guns for others who also had similar trouble creating them, themselves. While he did that, Ziera pointed the gun at some nearby target drones made from wood and leaves and tested the power of the gun, amazed when it took a chunk out of the drone's torso.

She could definitely use this! Though it did knock her back a little with the force of the blast.

'I can't use my Skate-Overs when firing this, I'll have to try using my left hand to fire my pistol when on the move.' She thought, looking down at the smaller flower gun in her holster. 'I wish I was ambidextrous.'

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when many of the Olkari heard a loud crash and spun around to see Pidge's lion descend hard into the forest's surface. Ryner was quick to spin around to face her fleet. "The Green Lion's in trouble!" She cried out, turning and running into the forest to where the lion had crashed.

Ziera clicked her tongue and switched on her Skate-Overs, rushing to catch up to Ryner and the few Olkari that followed her, the ones that had already finished preparing for the fight. Once they arrived at the clearing, which had previously been a deep thriving mass of trees and foliage, they all paused for a second in shock as Green laid there, crackling as electricity from the cube's attack sparked into the air.

"Pidge!" Ziera cried out in horror, kicking off towards the lion as the electricity died down. Ryner soon joined her and stopped Ziera from climbing inside, instead, the more sensible woman placed her three-fingered hand against the metal surface of the machine and closed her eyes.

"Pidge, can you hear me?" Ryner started, of course, Ziera couldn't hear the second side of the conversation due to the metal between her and the young teen inside. "...That's not important right now. We need to get your lion back up and running...I think we can heal your lion's body, but you must bond with it's spirit if it is to fly again."

Ziera kept looking from Ryner to the lion, concern washing over her face as the other Olkari placed their hands on the lion's surface. She felt so useless.

"...Your bond must be stronger!" Ryner's hand began to glow, alongside the others who assisted her in healing the lion. "Remember what I said. You, the lion, the Olkari, the Tylyrion, we are all made of the same essence..."

The feline alien watched in awe as the entire lion began to glow alongside those fixing its structure. Then, out of nowhere, they stepped back and Green stood, letting out an almighty mechanical roar, fully charged and ready to fight.

They all watched as the lion lifted into the sky and took off towards its damaged allies, who were still taking on the cube, and losing terribly in comparison to its echo powers. All of their jaws dropped when the shield on Green's back transformed into a laser and shot the closest cube, which then exploded with vines, rendering it useless.

"Yes!" Ziera shrieked excitedly, punching the air as the Olkari around her started cheering too, this was just the motivation they needed to begin their own advance. "C'mon! We can't let them do everything! Let's take back the city!"

They all echoed 'Yeah!' in unison, and the fight against the Galra sentries and their commander began. Ziera and Ryner lead them back to the armory, where the other troops joined them and marched towards the forest's edge.

The robot sentries that stood by the entrance to the city looked up when they heard loud rumbling from far away, and immediately called for backup and started firing when the entire forest-dwelling appeared from the trees, some in mechs, and some armed to fight with their lives.

Ziera shot down one of the sentries, while Colren took out the other, they shot each other a glare and all headed into the city's streets, fighting each and every enemy that came at them.

The muted-haired tech-junkie stood atop a small pile of broken robots, her and Melrak having taken them out moments prior, and hummed when she heard a starship engine rev in the distance. They all looked up once the last of the sentries were taken care of, and started cheering as the Galra Cruiser took off, leaving them in peace.

Thanks to the Paladins of Voltron, the Olkari city had been taken back, and those who were enslaved were finally released and able to live their lives once again!

Her heart warmed and she shot Ryner a bright smile, said woman reflecting that expression back at her friend as a response. Finally, she had repaid the new leader for all that she had done for her.

'Thank you, Pidge, Shiro...Everyone! Thank you for freeing them and making their lives better!'

~FbnL~

Ziera stood in her new room within the city center, staring at the blank walls as she held a box of her belongings. Now that the city had been restored, which had taken several hours even with Voltron's help, she supposed she should unpack and prepare to assist Ryner as much as she could with retaining the peace on this planet until the end of her life.

However, deep down, she couldn't bring herself to make this new room her own. She gripped the box tightly and sighed, holding the box under her arm as she turned and left the room, heading to the main tower they had infiltrated prior.

Since defeating the Galra and finding out that the Paladins would soon leave, her mind strayed to her own planet, and how, without a ship, she would never be able to get back home. In the back of her mind, she knew she couldn't build her own ship, nor ask the others to build one for her, as it would break all their hearts, along with her own. This might have been her only chance...Even if it meant breaking her promise to Ryner about staying and supporting her.

She knew what she had to do now and she hoped that they would understand, though she wouldn't blame them if they hated her for it...

It took her some time, but she finally reached the roof as Ryner agreed to join the coalition and fight alongside the Paladins to end Zarkon's rule. Ryner hummed, having just finished giving Pidge a pep-talk, and smiled at the sight of her good friend walking towards them.

"I see you've packed your things, are you preparing to head to your new room?" The new Olkari leader asked, her smile faltering when Ziera hesitated and looked away with a solemn frown. "Is something the matter, Ziera?"

"I...I have to ask the Paladins something important..." She started, placing the box down and stepping closer as said fighters turned to face her curiously. "I am a Tylyrion, my planet, Tylyrio is in the same star-system as Olkari and it has been many deca-phoebs since I have seen my home...I mean..."

She sighed and realized it was about time she explained what was going on. "I crash landed here a long time ago and lost all my memories of who I was and what had happened to me...But as time went on, I remembered small fragments about my planet, about my origins." She looked up, seeing the shock that had plastered itself across all their faces, except Ryner's and the four others she came to consider her family. "I feel that if I return to my home, even for a moment, I may remember more, and finally piece together who I was before I crashed here..."

"Lemme guess..." Lance started, curiosity etched across his tanned features as he arched a brow. "You want us to take you back?"

"...Yes."

Ryner and the others gasped in shock, and she flinched as several voices echoed together, complaining about her decision. Melrak stepped forward with a painful frown. "Era, you can't leave! You're as much a part of this planet as we are!"

"I know...I feel like this is my home too..." She went silent for a moment as she opened her eyes and gripped the pendant around her neck. "But there's something out there, hidden from my eyes, and I need to find it and regain what I lost...I'll come back, no matter what, but I just...I can't leave myself in this state! I need to know who I was to be who I am now!"

Melrak, Colren, Sephira, and Janze went to complain, but Ryner cut them off by walking towards Ziera. "I can't say I'm glad to see you find your path in life...Ziera." She started, smiling solemnly at her precious friend. "However, to move towards the future, one must understand their past and grow from their mistakes...Find your home, your people, and let them teach you who you were...But please, promise me you will return one day and tell us about your adventures."

Ziera's expression warped into strained sadness, her chin trembling as she nodded with a soft sound of agreement. She then looked over at the Paladins, a silent question as to whether she could come with them.

Shiro looked from Pidge to Lance, to Hunk and finally Keith. None of them made any objections against her coming with them, and Hunk even shrugged in response. The salt and pepper haired leader smiled as a result and turned his attention back to the woman pleading to join them. "I don't see why we can't drop you off along the way."

Ziera smiled gratefully and let out a shocked sound of surprise when her four friends suddenly rushed her and pulled her into a group hug. Colren was smiling sadly, and Sephira was hiding her face as Janze sobbed and even Melrak struggled to hold back his tears.

"We're gonna miss you, Era." Melrak told her, ruffling her hair as her own tears fell.

"Don't forget to visit!" Sephira demanded, as her buddy laughed weakly.

"I wish I was as brave as you, remember you can come back anytime," Colren said, squeezing her.

"Awaaaaahhhhh!" Janze cried out, sobbing and sniffling against her sleeve, forcing her to take a mental note to wash her spacesuit at some point.

In her heart, she felt the ache of leaving her friends behind and choked back a sob, holding them all as best she could in their tight hold. "I love you guys so much...! Thank you, for everything!"

A voice disrupted the moment, a hoarse throat being cleared, and the four turned to see Ryner standing there, her own eyes glassy with emotion. The four Olkari sentries sniffled and stepped back, giving the two space to say their farewells. "Perhaps their emotions have rubbed off on me, but my heart aches to see you go as well..." She walked over to Ziera and hugged her tight. "Be great, Ziera, as I know you can be...You will always have a home here, and we will retain your room for whenever you return."

Ziera, who had been surprised by the hug from her closest friend, choked out a broken sob and tightly grasped Ryner's robe, hugging her tight as she prepared to leave for who knows how long. "Y-you're like a mentor to me, Ryner. I don't know what I'll do without you to guide me...!"

The two parted and wiped their eyes with a broken laugh between them. Ziera then lifted her small box of belongings and headed towards the Green Lion, opting to ride with Pidge since they had so much in common. She stood in the mouth of the lion as it lifted into the air and looked down at her beloved friends as they waved her off, and the others, the many others, shouted farewells to her from the streets below.

It was time to find out who she was, so she could return with amazing technology and make the fable behind her new name a reality.

'Thank you guys, so much...For everything!'

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Please review/comment, each one gives me motivation to continue, while also helping me to improve my craft!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Deca-Phoeb = Year


	4. A New Motivation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After parting ways with her close friends, Ziera leaves Olkarion with the Paladins of Voltron! Will she find her planet and regain her memories, or is there a darker truth waiting in the depths of space?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> Hey guys, I finally finished chapter three! The reason I was so reluctant to post this chapter is that I strayed off the original plan, which is something I rarely do to this extent, and I thought it'd be taken badly because of it.
> 
> Turns out, it makes perfect sense, according to a beta reader, I'm grateful she read through my work, and I want to thank her.
> 
> Check out her AO3 Fic, Lotor's Gift, it's super good. She's under the name The_Cat_Whisperer. I hope that's right!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Within moments of Ziera entering the cockpit of Pidge's lion, the five of them lifted off and hovered for a few seconds before flying into the sky and out of sight, with the poor Tylyrion female clinging to Pidge's seat in surprise. "Th-the turbulence is far more prominent than I expected!" She stammered out over the vibrations wracking the ship.

"That's because we're leaving the atmosphere!" Pidge commented, typing on a screen, her eyes scanning the words as she made her way into the system. "I'll make some adjustments, give me a tick to find the right command."

The green paladin pressed a button and the shaking ceased, letting Ziera sigh with relief, she could not remember being on a ship before, so the turbulence had ignited an unfamiliar fear and sinking dread she did not want to experience. Honestly, she had expected to enjoy flying, maybe she did somewhere in her history, but right now it was unknown and unsettling because of it.

But her mind wandered when they finally reached the vacuum of space, and she looked out at all the stars she had watched back on Olkarion. Her eyes sparkled in awe and her fanged mouth fell open. "Oh, Divine Beings...This is beautiful~!" Her awestruck maw curled into a happy smile and she leaned a little too far forward to get a better look, with Pidge scrambling to keep her from pressing any controls on the monitors. "With what little I can remember, I've never seen the stars up close! I understand why they are seen as brilliant marvels of creation!"

"Heh, space is pretty great~." The young technician chimed in with a warm smile, just as happy as she was to see space, even after all this time. "So, where's your planet, anyway?"

Ziera's smile fell and she looked up with a bit of a perplexed frown. "Uhhhh..." She blushed and started sweating a little as she flashed the young pilot and awkward grin. "Ah, ha, ha...I can't remember!"

Pidge head lowered nearer to her shoulders with a dumbstruck expression. "Of course you don't..." She sombred up a moment later though. "How did you get to Olkarion if you don't know the way?"

"I already told all of you that I crash-landed, correct?" Ziera's expression softened into a frown and she leaned back, standing up behind Pidge's chair now, rather than excitedly leaning forward. "Well, the truth is, I really can't remember anything at all, not even how I got into the ship I was found in, let alone my method for getting there..."

Her grip tightened on the back of the chair as she gazed out at the stars, hope gleaming in those ombre colored eyes. "If I get back to Tylyrio and see everything I was once a part of, I may regain the memories of who I was, and what made me crash to begin with...Maybe I'll even find a family waiting for me, and a life filled with wonders that will help me create new technology when I return to Olkarion!"

" _Uhhhh, guys..._ "

Both women halted their conversation when a confused, yet concerned Hunk echoed through the intercom. "What's up, Hunk?" Pidge asked curiously, a small screen appearing with a horrified Hunk staring off into space.

" _I think I found Ziera's planet...And, uh...She's not gonna like it._ "

Ziera felt something drop in her heart, fear clouded her mind and she quickly moved to see Hunk better. "What do you mean, Hunk?" She asked, her tone a little higher out of fright. "What could possibly be so bad that I-...Oh...Divine Beings..."

Of course, her words trailed off as her gaze snapped to the black abyss of space. The once excited gleam coating her eyes turned to wide, sickening horror as her expression warped and tears pricked in their corners. Outside, surrounded by nothing but asteroids, were the remains of a planet, left floating, hollow and empty, in the space that Ziera's planet once occupied.

"No...No...!" She scrambled forward, Pidge fighting to keep her from getting too close to the monitors, her tears fell as she clenched her sharp teeth together and choked out a broken sob. "NO!" In that moment, a throb went through her head, from one temple to the other and she let out an agonizing cry, dropping to her knees gripping her muted blue hair. Her new friend's voice was nothing but a dull murmur as a sharp ringing clouded her hearing and everything went black.

_~FbnL~_

_Ziera sat in the small, claustrophobic space of the pod she had found herself in, taking heavy, scared breaths as she tried to fight the unbreakable protocol that kept her from turning around and returning to her planet. She was not going anywhere, she would not leave when they needed her the most._

_The sound of a larger, stronger engine caught her attention and she looked up to see a large Galra ship flying away from her planet, Zarkon's command ship, that much she could gather. At first, she was hopeful, but when the large battle-ready station turned and faced her planet again, that hope drained away._

_Her eyes widened as the ion cannons on every ship in the system lit up, including the ones on the main hub, and she let out a horrified, pleading scream as they fired at her home, reducing it to a burning mess of death and destruction._

_Zarkon had just destroyed her home, her family, and everything she knew in a split second, and she had no idea why._

_~FbnL~_

"ZIERA!"

The humanoid feline let out a gasp as her eyes opened suddenly and she found herself back on Pidge's ship, huddled on the floor, with her claws digging painfully into her scalp, while the worried pilot stared at her in concern, the others shouting through the coms for an update on the situation. "Oh thank God!" The young girl sighed with relief, sagging as the tension left her shoulders.

"P-Pidge...?" Ziera stared for a moment before she choked out a sob and tears spilled down her dark cheeks. She dove forward and pulled her into a tight hug, crying softly against her new friend. Of course, said friend was blinking widely with confusion, unsure whether to hug back or pull away. "I-I saw it...! I saw my planet get destroyed! That's why I was in the escape pod, that's why I was running away! Zarkon destroyed everything!"

"Whoa, hey, calm down!" Pidge put a hand on the woman's back, typing on the monitor to show the others what was going on. They all stopped asking panicked questions once they saw the scene. "Guys, Ziera just told me what happened to her planet! Zarkon was here, and he destroyed everything!"

All their eyes hardened, and Ziera pulled away from Pidge, hiccuping on her tears as she wiped them away with the palm of her hand. "I've lost so much...!" She started, her voice breaking at the end as she stood up and removed her hand from her face, revealing tear-filled, puffy, heart-wrenching eyes. "And it's all Zarkon's fault!" She took a deep breath, shaking as she clenched her fists. "I want to ask for another favor, if it isn't too much?" Her expression softened into a pleading frown, chin trembling. "I want to join your coalition. I want to fight by your sides and stop Zarkon before he can take any more worlds!"

"You can't just jump onto the front lines, y'know!" Keith pointed out, his expression hardening. "You could die out there, there's more to war than fighting!"

"I know that..." She lowered her head and her shoulders shook visibly as her tears kept falling. "I may not be the best fighter or the best engineer but...I will do whatever it takes to avenge my race, even if that means I die in the process!" She choked back another gut-wrenching cry and wiped her eyes once again, pressing her palms into her eyes. "So please...Please let me join you!"

"Uh, it's not really us you need to convince, Ziera..." Shiro started, sharing a concerned look with the other Paladins. "We'll take you back to the castle...If you're really serious about this, then there's someone you need to meet."

"...I am." She grimaced as she looked back at the broken remains of her home, unable to bear the sight for more than a few seconds as she jerked her head away from the image and squeezed her eyes shut. "I won't run away from this...If I do that, I'll be disrespecting the memory of my planet! I will convince your leader, and will work hard for the sake of peace!"

Silence stretched for a moment as the Paladins listened to her emotional, yet passionate words. Lance looked slightly confused, Hunk was very worried, and Keith's expression remained hard and intense, understanding her resolve. Shiro remained serious for a moment, then his expression softened slightly and he nodded. "Paladins, return to the castle...Pidge, let Coran know that we're bringing someone aboard."

"Got it."

The screens all vanished and Pidge paused as she went to call Coran, looking back at her new friend. "Are you sure about this?" She asked. "Fighting won't bring your family back...And...Do you really want to risk your life when you have friends waiting for you back on Olkarion?"

"Pidge, I spent a century with Ryner and the others..." She didn't pay attention to humorous shock that crossed the young teen's features. "I wouldn't have left if I didn't think I needed to do this...I know my memories are out there, and even if my home is gone..." She clenched her other fist and fought back her aching sorrow, gritting her trembling jaw. "I live on. So for the memory of those I've lost, I will get them the justice they deserve, and ensure that my new home never falls to the same hands!"

The conviction in her words, even behind the pain of her loss, was overwhelming, it could not be said that she was not passionate once she put her mind to something, at least. Pidge let out a soft breath and nodded. "Alright, I get it." She would do the same if her family had been killed, though she knew they were out there somewhere, she could feel it.

Sadly Ziera had lost that hope the moment she saw the state of Tylyrio.

With a press of a button, she called the castle. "Coran, It's Pidge. I've got some news..."

~FbnL~

Honestly, though she had no reason to fear this 'Allura,' considering she was the apparent leader of the team, Ziera found herself fidgeting nervously as her and the Paladins stepped into the elevator that lead to the bridge of the giant castle ship. Of course, it took them a good ten minutes from entering the castle to get to said elevator due to Ziera's obsession with technology, along with the many,  _many_  questions about the ship none of them could answer, as they were not well-versed in Altean technology.

The moment the lift stopped and the doors opened, the feline humanoid froze in fear, as before the group of six, stood two Alteans, one being a tall, older man with ginger hair and a moustache, while the other was a tall, dark woman with white hair tied in a bun and unique pink markings on her cheeks, nothing like the ones the Tylyrion had, which were just like the whiskers of a cat, and were only a lighter shade of her actual skin-tone.

"Welcome back, Paladins." Allura stated, her eyes remaining on Ziera, feeling an uncomfortable sensation of distrust. She had been filled in on the situation, but could not quite believe it to be true. "Coran told me you were bringing a potential ally back to the ship, and that she wished to speak with me, I assume this is her?" The far more elegant and polite woman looked at Ziera, who jolted at the eye-contact, blushing a deep black in response.

"Yes," Shiro confirmed, stepping forward before turning slightly and gesturing to the nervous alien. "This is Ziera, she was among the Olkari refugees that were hiding from the Galra that had infiltrated the planet. She proved herself trustworthy during the battle, and Ryner, the new leader of the Olkari, swears she can be trusted and will bring no harm to our coallition."

Allura's eyes narrowed suspiciously and settled on the gem around Ziera's neck, which glimmered in the flickering lights of the many screens surrounding them. "Yet she wears a Galra crystal?"

The entire group snapped their attention to the poor woman, who felt like shriveling up and falling out of an airlock right then and there. They all had wide eyes and confirmed for themselves just by looking, that the jewel which resembled an amethyst, was truly a Galra crystal and not the popular Earth gem.

"Wait, what?!" Lance blurted out in surprise, pointing rudely at her. "You're telling me that's  _not_  just some alien gem?!"

"Hmmm..." Pidge got a little too close to the flustered feline, who stepped back slightly in surprise, as she stroked her chin and inspected the pendant. "Now that I think about it, it does look a lot like Sendak's crystal."

Allura was quick to turn vicious, speaking in a tone no one would question. One that spoke authority. "State your name and purpose!"

"Z-Ziera!" The woman stammered out, stiffening up like a soldier under the princess' commanding tone. "I came here to offer my assistance to the Coalition!"

"Are you a spy under Zarkon's command?" The taller woman stepped closer and Ziera panicked and stumbled back in fear, while the others tried to get her to back off a little, they had trust in Ziera, she had given them no reason not to. "No person against his empire would  _dare_  to wear a crystal so sought after by their armies!"

"W-wait, I-" Ziera swallowed hard and gripped the pendant around her neck. "I'm not allied to the Galra at all! I don't remember how I got this necklace, but it wasn't from the Galra, that much I know!" She looked down at the beautiful shine from the gem itself. "I crash landed on Olkari after my own planet was destroyed by Zarkon, I have no memories, no home, and no family...I would  _never_  ally myself with him!"

The way Allura continued to stare at her made the tech-loving alien shrink back, she could feel her distrust even now. However, it was Shiro, the voice of reason, that stepped in for her. "Allura, I understand why you're suspicious, but I can tell she's telling the truth. Even Ryner confirmed her story was true," He glanced back at the cat-like female, who was surprised by his words, since most tended to shy away when the Galra were mentioned, not wanting to stand up for someone who may or may not be 'friends' with them. "Not only that, but the commander in charge of enslaving the Olkari didn't recognize her, and he seemed like a pretty important figure."

"Yeah!" Hunk chipped in, clenching his fists which were bent by the elbow against his sides. "Plus she kinda helped us out, and I don't think Zarkon would've let anyone do that, even if they'd get access to the Castle of Lions!"

"I've gotta side with Shiro and Hunk on this one." Lance pointed out, closing his eyes with a sigh as he crossed his arms and gestured a hand towards their new friend. "She doesn't seem like the 'spy' type to me."

"Zarkon might be devious, but I don't think he'd risk losing a planet full of the universes' best technicians just to get a spy aboard," Pidge stated, pushing her glasses up her nose as she thought it over. "It's too much of a risk, especially with the advancements he could make to Galra technology with the Olkari under his control."

Allura looked at each of the Paladins, noticing none of them seemed to show an inkling of distrust towards their new friend, and shot Ziera a glare, watching as she stood there, shaking and holding the necklace tight as if the princess would take it from her otherwise. "Fine." She finally ground out, looking down her nose at their new 'ally.' "Since the Paladins know you better, I'll choose to accept their opinions of you...But be warned, if I find out you're lying, your punishment will be severe!"

Ziera knew that meant prison or worse, and the idea of being locked up made her swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. "O-okay...!" She croaked, looking down at the floor. "But I can promise you...I won't  _ever_ betray the people that helped Ryner and the others!"

Allura was surprised when the feline lifted her head and shot her a determined frown, as if doing a one-eighty from the fear-ridden kitten she had been before. After a moment, the princess relaxed and stepped forward, keeping eye-contact as Shiro and Pidge stepped out of her way. "Welcome to the Coalition, Ziera." She held out her hand, and her new ally looked at it in surprise. "Prove to me that you can be trusted."

A strained, reserved smile slowly spread onto the extremely nervous Tylyrion's face and she grabbed Allura's hand, almost yelping at the strong grip the Altean possessed. Were all Altean women this powerful?! "I-I will!"

Allura nodded. "I'm glad to hear it. The resting quarters are down the hall, to the left, and around the right corner..." She gestured with her hands to where said quarters would be. "Once you're settled come back to the bridge and we can explain your role alongside us."

Ziera mumbled a nervous 'yes' and turned, leaving the room while mirroring the younger woman's gestures so she would not get lost or forget them.

Once the door slid shut and the sounds of footsteps were no longer heard, Coran spoke up. "Allura, do you really think we can trust her?" He asked, knowing Allura well enough to know she would not let such an important detail slide so easily.

"I don't know." She turned and frowned with concern at her dear friend. "Something's off...I feel like we're not getting the whole story."

"Well, yeah." Lance pointed out, shrugging his shoulders flippantly. "If she's lost most of her memories, then we can't get the full story, can we?"

"No, that's not what I mean." Allura's voice softened as she stroked her chin and looked down at the ground.

"Then what  _do_  you mean, Princess?" Shiro asked.

"It's probably nothing, but I feel like she's hiding something from us, a detail she may be keeping hidden as not to cause suspicion...Of course, I may be overthinking it. I just...I can't trust her, not yet."

"Will y'still give her a chance?" Hunk asked, pressing two fingers together as he looked at the door with a curious pout, it was nice to have someone more...energetic aboard. "I mean, I don't think she'll do anything y'know... _Bad_. She might've gotten that Crystal from someone who fought the Galra, we don't know."

"That's true..." Allura sighed. "Alright, I'll definitely give her the chance to prove herself. Especially since she gave you so much support on Olkarion, but..." She smiled slightly at all her friends. "Don't let your guard down until then, okay?"

They all nodded and with that, they turned and left the room to change out of their Paladin armor, as they knew it would be time to sleep soon.

~FbnL~

Not ten minutes after leaving the bridge, Ziera had located and picked out an empty room for herself. She had settled the box down on her bed and sat on the top of the desk that came with the small space, legs bent as she held them close to her chin. Her eyes were sad, and a little lonely as she thought back to everything that had just taken place.

Not only was she the only Tylyrion left in existence, as far as she knew, but because of one silly little gem she could not part with, she had lost the trust of the leader of the Coalition, the one person she needed to convince of her desire to fight Zarkon's rule. Now she had to go about her days in a strange ship, with strange people, and fight harder than ever to gain the trust she had taken so long to earn back when she first crashed on Olkarion.

Tears pricked at her eyes when she thought of her friends back on the wonderful planet she had called home for a century. She gritted her teeth and buried her face into her knees as she let out a tiny sob, wishing she had not made the rash decision of leaving, just so she could understand herself a little more.

She missed Melrak.

She missed Sephira, Colren and Janze.

She missed  _Ryner_.

'If there's one thing I did right...' She thought, peeking out over her knees to stare at the wall in front of her. 'It's that I didn't tell her more about the crash...'

If Allura had reacted so negatively to her crystal, she could only imagine what she would have said or done if Ziera had mentioned to her or any of the Paladins that she was found in Galra armor. That did not mean she had lied about the crystal, she truly did not know where she got it from, but the mention of it did not bring about fear or discomfort, like most memories of her time with the Galra did, so she could only assume it was someone else who gave it to her.

The 'young' Tylyrion took a deep breath and straightened her legs out in front of her, turning her attention to her belongings, where a piece of parchment showed an image of her, Melrak, Colren, Sephira, Janze, and Ryner sat, waiting to be displayed. With a smile, she stood and walked over, picking it up and staring intently at the memories it contained.

She regretted leaving so suddenly but knew this was the right thing to do. If she helped the Coalition, if she gained their trust, then she could give something back to the Olkari. She could set the universe free and they could exist without any fear of the Galra returning to claim their planet.

She could stop them from having the same fate as her birth home...That enough was a motivation for her to gain the trust of the princess and the others, no matter what she had to do.

However, just before she could put the picture down and rest so she could do just that with her full attention, the ship shook violently and an alarm blared overhead. "What the Quizna-" She was cut off when another violent tremor made her lose her footing, and she hissed softly once she found it again.

Without waiting a second, she pressed the button on her Skate-Overs, opened the door to her room and started skating towards the bridge, ready to face whatever danger they were about to get into.

Whatever it was, she would do everything she could to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for watching! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Please review, all comments and criticisms help me be a better writer!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Tick = Second(ish)


	5. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With her new place among the ranks of Team Voltron, Ziera is surprised when a red alert interrupts her thoughts, just what was going on, and what could she do to help?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4: The Chase
> 
> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> Hey guys, it's been a while since I updated this story, BHBL is getting really close to the romance portion of its story, and I've been putting my focus there for the time being. However since I had to plan the next five chapters of BHBL, I thought I'd take the opportunity to update this fic while my plate wasn't full!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

 

Honestly, none of this was what Ziera was expecting when she left Olkarion in a blind rush to see her home again. She never expected to see Tylyrio completely obliterated, or be persecuted by Allura because of her precious pendant. But now the ship was under red alert, the shrill alarm causing her serious hearing discomfort as she skated down the halls towards the bridge, where she knew everyone had gathered since it was rare for people to blatantly ignore a red alert.

When she finally reached the room in question, she skidded to a halt and switched off her Skate-Overs as the door slid open and she saw the entire crew stood around the central platform where Allura stood. Said woman turning to meet her horrified gaze as the Tylyrion woman stared up and what awaited them outside the castle's observation window. "No..." She managed to squeak out in terror, fear clenching deep in her gut as she remembered the last time she saw that ship.

When it was hovering above the burning remains of her original home.

It was Zarkon's command base, and it was towering over them with  _many_  battle cruisers tagging along behind it.

"I knew we couldn't trust you!"

Ziera's thoughts were torn from her as she snapped her gaze to the Altean princess, who stepped towards the feline alien, causing her to panic internally and look for an escape route. "I knew the moment you were left alone, that you would reveal our location to the enemy! I should have followed my instincts and refused your 'help' from the start!"

"W-wait, I-I swear it wasn't me!" Ziera piped out, swallowing the fearful lump in her throat as she looked at the other Paladins. "I don't even have a communicator that would work long range!" She carefully pulled the communicator she did carry out of her ear, a tiny pod made of wood. "This thing can only detect close-range signals, and even then, they can't be encripted, or it'll just voice static!"

"Liar!" Allura continued to storm over to their newest ally, and Ziera stepped back, trying to pin herself to the wall, but because she had just entered the room, the only thing behind her was a door that reacted with a close-proximity censor. Therefore, the poor feline almost fell backward when it slid open on its own. "How else would the Galra find us so easily? It's quite a coincidence for them to appear just after  _you_  arrived!"

"P-please believe me!" Ziera straightened up, trying to stand her ground against the taller alien woman. "I wouldn't do that to any of you! Ryner is my best friend, and she trusts you all, why would I jeopardize that by betraying you?!"

"She's got a point, Allura." Keith piped up from Allura's left, prompting the princess to turn around and face him. He had been silent during her questioning earlier, why was he choosing then to speak up in favor of their new 'ally.' "His commander must have radio'd in from Olkarion. It's the only other possible conclusion, I can think of."

"Keith's right." Shiro chipped in, looking back at the commotion, trying to be alert in a time of crisis. "Ziera's given us no reason to suspect her so far, we can only take her word for it until we deal with the situation we're in."

Allura stared for a moment, thinking over his words, then shot a sharp glare at Ziera, who flinched back in fear, only to hop back into the room when the doors started to close on her. After a moment, Allura clicked her tongue, trying to keep her thoughts to herself, as she turned back to address said situation.

Ziera would have relaxed if it were not for the unsettling presence of Zarkon's ship.

"Guys, we need to wormhole, now!" Shiro told them, noticing that a few of the cruisers had started aiming their ion cannons towards them since they had not moved for a minute or two. "Everyone to your stations, we've got to put some distance between us and Zarkon! This could be the fight of our lives!" With that, they all nodded and each went to their own seats, while Coran ran up front and Allura remained on the central platform where she commanded the ship. He then turned to Ziera, who was stood awkwardly by the doors, unsure what to do. "Ziera." The black paladin's use of her name caught her attention.

"Y-yes?"

"Hold on tight, the ride's going to get rough from here out."

Ziera swallowed what little fear was left after arriving at the bridge and nodded with timid, yet serious eyes. She dove for the back of the nearest chair, which happened to be Hunk's and held on tight, apologizing softly to the yellow paladin, who just waved off her words since she was not hurting anyone.

And just then, the outside of the ship lit up with enemy fire and a smaller screen appeared to show at least a thousand Galra fighters that had been dispatched from the cruisers around them. "That sure is a lot of fighters." Keith pointed out.

"Allura!" Shiro started, not turning to face her as he checked the different stats on his small monitor. "Can you evade these fighters? We can't have them following us through the wormhole!"

"I can try!" Allura called back, holding the two pillars in front of her as the castle suddenly sped up. If it were not for Ziera's discomfort around the woman, she would have gone into an excitable charade of questions about her control of the ship, but instead, she kept her trap shut, as not to anger the already rather aggressive princess.

The castle moved quickly through the vacuum of space as the Particle Barrier raised around them and the fighters stopped firing and began to pursue them incessently.

"Keith, Lance!" Shiro called out to his fellow paladins, who both listened. "Let's lay down some covering fire!"

The two made sounds of agreement before three small drones left the sides of the ship, one black, one blue and one red. They shot at the fighters and managed to damage a few of them, but there was way too many.

"Lance, incoming!" Pidge shouted to the blue paladin. "Twelve o'clock high!"

Lance smirked and yanked at the controller he held, which turned the drone towards the fighter which was moving far too close to the ship for comfort. "Got it!" He called out, only for the red drone to knock him out of the way and take the shot, destroying the enemy ship. "Hey!"

"Sorry!" Keith said simply. "Gotta be quick!"

"How's that for quick?" The blue drone slammed into the red drone, and the two started trying to destroy eachother's equipment in their petty rivalry.

"Knock it off, you two!" Shiro scolded them, keeping his eyes on the screens. "Stay in your zones!"

"Yeah, Keith!"

"Keep calling out those fighters, Pidge!" He then turned his attention to the yellow paladin. "Hunk, how are the defenses holding?"

The larger male wiped his tired eyes and opened the monitor he had, looking over the stats. "I dunno, ten percent, fifteen maybe?" His eyelids drooped when he could not read the symbols. "Everything's a blur, I've been up too long, I have tired eyes!"

"I know we just came off an intense battle, but we gotta stay focused, just until we jump!"

Ziera suddenly leaned over the back of the chair and scared the crap out of Hunk making him shrink back as a reaction. She quickly scanned the images, as she could not understand the language, then shouted over to Shiro. "The defenses are at twenty-five percent, but they won't last long if they take any more heavy fire!"

"Thanks, Ziera! Keep an eye on those readings, ok?"

"Not a problem!" She smiled at Hunk, who let out an awkward laugh and smiled back, giving her a thumbs up. She was a pretty cool person when she did not scare him half to death.

"Hey Coran, when are we gonna jump?" Keith asked, his tone raising an octave as he began to feel overwhelmed by the number of fighters he was forced to deal with.

"They're still too close!" The older Altean replied, looking over the screens as different warnings began to pop up. "We need to gain more speed!"

And that's when something clicked in Allura's mind. "I've got an idea...!" She started, arching forward slightly as her grip on the podiums tightened. "Hold on!"

The group only had a split second to heed her advice, before the ship suddenly gained speed and started flying quite rapidly towards a nearby moon. Sadly, despite grabbing Hunk's chair tight, Ziera's feet slipped out from under her and she yelped as she fell onto her backside.

Though her shoes gave her great momentum, they had zero frictional grip on surfaces. Perhaps she would need to tinker with them and alter this design flaw in the future. "Ziera, are you alright?" Pidge called over, hearing the woman's cry.

"Ah-ha, yep, I'm fine! I just slipped!" Ziera shouted back, trying to get back up, only to realize she was safer staying on her ass. "I'm going to stay down here until the princess does what she must to ensure our survival, otherwise I'll just keep falling over!"

"Uh, Allura, what  _are_  you doing?!" The young tech expert turned her attention to the princess at her side, who was looking out at the oncoming moon.

"I'm going to use this moon's gravity to gain speed and put some distance between us and Zarkon!" She stated simply, as she finally reached the moon's orbital gravity. The ship turned with the moon, flying around its large surface as the occupants tried to keep a tight hold with the intense G-force caused by the speed increase.

Coran watched the monitors as they did so and was quick to turn. "We're clear to wormhole!" He called out over the rumbling vibrations their little stunt was causing.

Allura nodded and closed her eyes, sweat dripping from her chin as a large wormhole appeared in front of them and they slipped through, quickly closing it behind them to ensure no fighter jets followed them inside.

Ziera took the opportunity, as they slowed down, to stand up, smiling at Hunk when he shot her a worried look. However, her smile faded when she noticed that there was still a red, flashing alarm blaring through the room. "W-wait, if we managed to wormhole away, why are we still on alert?"

Shiro's expression matched Ziera's concern. "Coran, what's going on?"

Coran was quick to open a new screen on the monitor, and all the color drained from his face. "Oh no!" He cried out. "Teladuv Lense malfunction!" He looked up at the wormhole tunnel as a portal appeared. "We're about to exit this wormhole a lot sooner than we planned!"

And they did, within a moment the ship slipped through the exit and into a large galaxy filled with massive shards of broken ice asteroids. Though dangerous, it was a beautiful sight.

Once the group got their breath back, they looked around at their surroundings. "Whoa, where are we?" Lance asked, arching a brow. "Look's like some sort've iceberg graveyard."

"Coran, what's the status?" Allura managed to rasp, gripping her head as a wave of dizziness washed over her.

"Checking that now..." Coran started, typing rapidly. "We didn't make it to our exit point, but we're several galaxies from Zarkon's fleet."

Everyone's attention turned from Coran in an instant when they heard Allura let out a gasp and hit the ground. They all vocalized her name in a panic and rushed over to see if she was alright, even Ziera, who was in a little pain herself.

"Oh no, you look exhausted..." The eldest Altean stated, crouching down to check her over. "You must rest, you've been exerting way too much energy..." He stood back up and kicked off towards the door. "I'll go check on the main turbine and figure out what's going on-uuwaaaaahhhhh!" With that, the poor man seemed to step into a puddle and skidded straight into the wall beside the door, which opened comedically, despite him completely missing his original trajectory.

"Whoa, are you alright?" Lance asked, standing up next to Keith, a little shocked by the sudden collision.

Coran groaned as he peeled himself off the cracked wall, leaving behind a strange silhouette of his form in slime. He then tried to act cool and placed his hand against the wall, secretly using it for balance. "Ohhh...Oh, I'm fine!" He let his foot skid across the shiny floor, leaving a trail behind. "Um...Look, I'll tell you what, I've probably hit a slippery spot on the ground here." He stiffened up and pointed at the suspicious puddle. "Someone, please...Wipe that up there!"

Allura turned to face Coran. "You're..." She paused to catch her breath. "You're sweating...You might have a case of the Slipperies."

"What?" Coran spoke with such a strong sense of shock as if she had offended his very being. "No! No, that's an old person virus, and I'm not old, I'm young~." He held out a hand in a proud manner, only to notice a bubble of sweat filling his palm, which he quickly tucked behind his back nervously. "Well, young-ish..."

"What're the Slipperies?" Lance asked.

"It's a common Altean virus that occurs...Later in life." She tilted her head to the side when she said 'later.' "It's not harmful, and usually only lasts a couple of days, but..." She watched as Coran stepped away from the sweat, only to panic when a puddle formed beneath his feet, forcing him to move again. "It causes one's body to secrete extremely slick fluid."

In that moment the humans of the group all dove behind Allura with sounds of disgust, while Ziera just sat beside the Altean princess, unfazed by the description. There were worse Tylyrio ailments, like fleshballs...

She had them for a short while on Olkarion, they usually only come around when stress builds up or an illness like flu is contracted and they are not too pleasant. Luckily the ailment is rare, so she only had it the once, and vowed to try not to get it again.

Blegh.

"Yes, it is gross!" Coran stated, looking very embarrassed as he grinned nervously. "It's a good thing I don't have it!"

Allura shot her surrogate father a soft smile, while Pidge ran off to the side to vomit, which again, Ziera did not truly understand. "Coran, it's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I'm not embarrassed!" The older Altean outstretched his arms as a form of emphasis, only further proving he had it when the sweat started dripping off his arms. "Because I don't have it! And now, I'm actually going to leave, because I've got to fix the main turbine." He turned to the door, but much to his humiliation, whenever he took a step, he did not move an inch due to the slick puddle under his feet. He started to panic and increased his walking speed, only to lose control and fall onto his rear and out the door, skidding down the corridor with wails of fear. "QUIZNACK!"

Silence stretched for a moment before Shiro spoke up. "Alright, since Zarkon has no idea where we are, this is the perfect time to focus on our next step." With those words, Hunk and Lance sighed while both Allura and Keith's expression warped with exhaustion. Ziera though, still had a lot of energy, as she had not done much since arriving. "Maybe we can find that secret group, the Blade of Marmora." The black paladin quickly turned his attention to the young tech expert who had flopped onto her chair after emptying her stomach. "Where are those coordinates?"

The young teen groaned as she sat up and started typing lazily. "Wait, hang on...I'm so tired, my brain's not working."

"Yeah..." Lance started, his shoulders sagging tiredly. "So's mine."

Ziera hummed and looked over at the fatigued green paladin. "Do you want me to assist you, Pidge? I've still got plenty of energy to spare, that way you can take a break~!"

However, their small conversation was interrupted by Coran's voice as a monitor appeared before them, diverting their attention. "Hello all, I've checked the engines!" He said, trying to keep his balance, despite his virus.

"That was fast," Pidge commented.

"Well, I slipped right down-" He started, but realized what he said and flailed to fix his mistake, only to hit the floor, causing a bump to appear on his forehead. "I mean, hurried down!" He straightened up, injury throbbing painfully as he did so. "The good news is, the Galra Fighters did minimal damage! I flushed the turbine and it's fine."

"Oh, wonderful!" Ziera said gleefully, standing up to look at the screen better, excited by the different machines she could see behind the man. "This ship truly is a mechanical marvel, if it can take such force without damage!"

"Well, actually..." Coran interrupted, sweatdropping slightly. "Bad news is, the Teladuv, or 'Wormholer' as the paladins call it, is in bad shape..."

"Oh..." Ziera's large ears drooped.

"Several Scaultrite lense stones of the Magnifying Beam Generator are cracked." He looked at the machine to his right, which held the cracked lenses. "As you know, the Magnifying Beam Generator uses a crystal to convert Altean energy into usable fuel. That supplies the power needed to wormhole." He realized his injury was still throbbing away and quite painfully pushed it down, which made the others flinch slightly, while Hunk looked ready to vomit. "Well, I need to remove the cracked lenses and readjust their trajectory temporarily until we can replace them! I'll also need to divert power to make up for the lost energy...Anyway, it's going to take at least a quintant!"

Shiro nodded at Coran's explanation, he and Allura being the only two that did not react to his actions. "Alright, we'll hide the ship and get some rest while Coran comes up with a work around." He looked at the others, who were significantly more tired than he was, then returned his attention to their mechanic. "Tomorrow we'll be sharper and refocused."

Everyone, apart from the energetic Tylyrion female, sighed with relief, and Allura, who was still sitting with her fingers linked in her lap, spoke up. "There's a pool in the third sector if anyone wants to have a relaxing swim before they get some sleep!"

All she got was some grunts of exhaustion and maybe a casual 'sounds like a plan' as the three teens, excluding Pidge, left the room to do their own things. Pidge then stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna help Coran for a bit...Standing and tinkering will help me sharpen up."

Pidge hopped out of her seat and walked towards the door, pausing as it opened to look at Ziera. "Do you wanna come with me, Ziera?"

"Oh please, Pidge, call me Era~!" Ziera said with a kind smile. "And I'd love to help, but first..." She turned her attention to Allura, who blinked in curious confusion when she felt eyes watching her. "If possible, I'd like to accompany Allura as she goes to her room."

Allura's expression went cold in a split second, distrust obvious in her eyes, which hurt the Tylyrion female a little, but she bit back her pain, she understood her suspicion, after all. "That's quite alright." The princess stated as she stood up, still sweating slightly from exertion. "I can make my own way back."

"But...!" Ziera clenched her fists and swallowed the fear that bubbled up when she thought of arguing with last surviving member of the Altean Royal Family. "I think the company will help rejuvinate you a little, and...I feel like I know nothing about you, I want to understand you better, is that such a bad thing?"

Allura was silent for a moment as she thought back to every logical argument the paladins had made in Ziera's favor. And after a moment of contemplation, she sighed and gestured to the door. "Fine, you may accompany me to my quarters..."

Though the small step in the right direction made Ziera hopeful, because of her previous rejection to the idea, the atmosphere in the room felt tense and a little irritated, so she just awkwardly nodded and left the room, Allura following behind.

Once Pidge left the room and turned the corner, leaving them alone, they started walking and the door to the bridge closed behind them. They were a small distance apart due to the sweat coating the floor, but the most uncomfortable thing was the silence that followed.

"So..." The tech-loving feline started, awkwardly twiddling her thumbs behind her back. "The Alteans are rather famous on my planet...Well, Olkarion, anyway~!" She smiled at Allura, who did nothing but glance over. "After all, you were the ones that challenged Zarkon's empire, right?"

"...My father was the one to challenge Zarkon's rule." Allura finally stated, and slowly, Ziera felt relief wash over her, this was better than nothing. "He was also the one to create Voltron and defend the universe as a peaceful protector."

"That sounds amazing~!" Ziera looked up as she let out a curious hum. "I bet you're proud to be his daughter!"

"...Yes, not a day goes by where I don't miss him."

The change of tone in Allura's voice caught the feline's attention and she turned her head to see the princess averting her gaze with pain stretched across her features. Her curiosity warped into guilt and empathy as she sighed and looked down at the floor. "I get it..." She started. "I...Know it's not the same but I've lost people in my life too, though...I can't remember them."

Allura hummed. "You can't remember them? Is that a symptom of your amnesia, per chance?"

Ziera nodded and swallowed the lump that started forming in her throat. It still hurt to think about it. "I can't remember much from before I woke up under Ryner's care...I just remember little bits and pieces of my life...Like being captured by the Galra, and some local traditions and sayings from my home planet..." Her chin trembled and her voice cracked when she spoke again. "A-and the moment I watched Zarkon's fleet fire at Tylyrio and destroyed everything...!"

When she choked back a painful sob and covered her mouth in an attempt to stop the burning sensation in her throat, Allura's eyes actually softened, and she saw herself when she found out her father died. There was no denying the honest emotion of grief. "I'm sorry for your loss..."

Ziera sniffled and shot Allura a grateful smile, then surprised the princess by taking off her goggles and holding them out to her, the wooden comm still in her hand from earlier. "Here..." She started, watching as the princess hesitantly reached out for them, confused for lack of a better word. "I want you to take these to Pidge and analyze them, just to put your mind at ease about whether or not I'm a traitor."

"You...Wish for me to spy on your communications?" Allura asked, taking them and looking them over, they were very retro but advanced for their design. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because I get why you don't trust me...Without all my memories, I can hardly trust myself sometimes..." She clenched her fist around the Galra crystal pendant she didn't remember but cherished. "But I know for a fact I'm innocent here, and if taking my devices and checking them is what it takes to gain your trust completely, then I'm all for it."

To prove how much she appreciated her co-operation, Allura's lips curled upwards slightly. This pulled a quivering smile from the heartbroken Tylyrion, who appreciated that gesture more than anything else.

"Then I'll thank you for entrusting me with your belongings...I'll return them once Pidge runs diagnostics."

"That's fine by me since we're not going anywhere for the time being~!"

The two shared a small chuckle and finally, they reached Allura's room, stopping at the door. Ziera bowed respectfully and turned to walk away. "I hope your rest is pleasant, Princess...I'll be sure to alert you if anything were to happen."

"Ziera, wait."

The feline hummed and turned around, blinking back bewilderment as the princess stood there, smiling. She was starting to see why the others trusted her so easily...Despite her previous suspicions, the Tylyrion was quite the pure-hearted individual. "Coran may not want to admit it, but he has the Slipperies, and that could make it more difficult for him to fix the Teladuv..." She sighed with exasperation and tilted her head to the side in amusement. "Could you perhaps check on him, and assist him with his work? Pidge told me you're quite the tech-expert, and if that's true, I'm sure I won't find anyone better for the job."

Ziera's curiosity turned to surprise as her eyes widened. "Y-you'll let me in the engine room?"

"Of course..." She flashed a frown of guilt and placed her hands behind her back. "The help would be appreciated, especially with Zarkon searching the universe for our ship."

Allura was expecting gratitude since Ziera seemed quite grateful about most things, but she was not expecting the woman's eyes to gleam excitedly, and for her to turn on her Skate-Overs, ready to zoom out of sight at any moment. "I'm more than happy to help, Princess! Just give me the directions, and I'll be there in a flash~!"

The Altean woman laughed slightly, then pointed down the hall, which Ziera followed with her eyes. "Straight down to the first turn, then make a left, then a right, and straight down...That should be where Coran is. You won't miss it, there will be sweat leading up to the door."

"Oh." Ziera laughed and bopped her own forehead. "Of course, I could've just followed the sweat!" She smiled back at Allura and gave her a meek wave. "Right, I'll be going then! Don't worry about everyone else, just get some good rest, ok?"

"I'll do my best~!"

And with that, Ziera started skating through the air, down the corridor and out of sight, while Allura watched her leave. Once gone, the princess looked down at the goggles and communicator, before clenching her hand around them.

Perhaps she had been rather rude to Ziera this entire time...After all, the crystal could have come into her possession after she escaped from the Galra, just because she held one, did not mean she worked for them.

With a sigh, she looked back out at the corridor one last time, before entering her room to get the rest she needed.

Meanwhile, Ziera made it to the engine room in little to no time, skidding to a halt by the door as Pidge left the room with a tired pout. "Hey Pidge!" She called out, surprising the small paladin. "I thought you were helping Coran, what happened?"

"Heh, if you're here to help, I suggest avoiding any conversation about the 'Slipperies.' Pidge started, rubbing her neck sheepishly. "He kicked me out after I slipped on his sweat and told him he should find a cure for the virus."

"Oh dear...Well, thanks for the advice!" She waved pleasantly as Pidge walked past her to go and find someone else to hang out with, and once the young teen was out of sight, she went to the door and opened it.

However, she was not prepared for what she found, as Coran held onto a machine for dear life, panicking as his sweaty feet kept sliding apart, threatening to make him do the splits, which most males tended to hate for obvious reasons.

She felt sweat slide down her own cheek as she realized this task would be more difficult than Allura had made it out to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading, please review, as all comments push me to be a better writer!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Quintant = Day


	6. A Spark of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Zarkon's appearance, time is of the essence. Not knowing how he could continue to find them, Ziera, Coran and the others aboard the ship must find a way to escape the evil emperor before Voltron is lost forever...Can they find a way out of the impossible?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, death, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.
> 
> Hey guys, I finally finished chapter 5 of this story! That means I can start planning the next five chapters! Since this takes place halfway through season 2, it'll be a little while before Lotor is introduced, but until then, I'll make sure to add more content about Ziera and her past to make up for the wait!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

The sight that met Ziera was not one she was expecting, though, at this point in time, she was starting to believe this was the norm for everyone aboard. Coran was clinging to one of the large consoles next to the wormhole generator, trying to keep himself stood upright as his feet slid backward, stretching his body out as far as it would go until he was only clinging to the floor by the scrunched tips of his toes.

The motion of the Tylyrion female lifting her hand to scratch her cheek awkwardly caught the flamboyant man's attention, and his eyes snapped to her's, wide in silent panic. "Oh!" He exclaimed, his tone an octave higher than it should have been. "Ziera, what're you doing here?"

Ziera dropped her hand and let out a slightly sheepish laugh, stepping around the slimy puddles to close the door behind her. "The princess sent me. Since I'm new and don't really know what else I can do, and have the most experience with engineering out of the group, she thought I'd be a good help to you."

"That's just like Allura." Coran finally managed to regain his slippery footing and stood up, only to flail for a second and catch himself, pretending he was just resting his elbow on the console, which Ziera was not falling for in the slightest. He was not the smoothest of liars. "She always finds a way to consider others, even when she should be worrying about herself first..." His expression went from embarrassed to serious as Ziera hummed in response. "Listen...I'm sorry about how she acted before...She's been through a lot and because of that, she doesn't trust anything that could be linked to the Galra...She didn't mean any harm, and I'm sure she'll come around...Eventually."

Ziera's curious pout turned to a solemn smile and she sighed, looking at the console as if inspecting it, so she could avert her gaze naturally. "It's alright, Coran...I understand why she wouldn't trust me...But, I think we're making progress, and I'm willing to be patient if that's what it takes to convince her."

The two shared an understanding, polite smile, grateful for the other's words before the softer conversation shifted to more pressing matters. "Right, if you're serious about helping, could you go to that monitor there and make sure the power levels throughout the ship stay stable while I shift some of the energy from the smaller systems into the Teladuv?"

"No problem!" The feline engineer stated, turning to the console and looking it over. Though she grimaced at the sight of the sweat covering the machines, she grasped the surface eagerly, excited to explore the castle systems, like the tech nut she was. However, though she was expecting to be able to get straight to work, instead she could only stare blankly as sweat slid down her cheek when she noticed that everything was written in Altean and she could not understand a single word of it. "Uh, Coran?"

"Hm, yes, what is it?" Coran asked hastily without looking back, sliding clumsily from one machine to another as he started siphoning power.

Just before the blue-haired technician could ask where the translations were located, the entire ship shook, causing them both to hold on for dear life as red lights flashed through the room and warning alarms blared. "What in Quiznack is going on now?!" The Altean gentleman cried out with elevated stress etched into his voice.

Ziera awkwardly pressed a button on the console and almost beamed when she saw the castle diagnostics appear. That was lucky! "It looks like the particle barrier's been activated!"

It was then that Coran looked up just as a large screen appeared, showing everyone on the bridge at their designated stations. "Coran, Ziera, are you there?" Came the voice of the princess, standing at her usual station, still exhausted, but ready to fight if necessary.

"I'm here!" Coran called out as the shaking made him slip and slide all over the place. Ziera absent-mindedly waved to prove she was still alive as Coran slid past the screen again. "Over here, whoa~!"

"Zarkon's back!" The princess stated sharply, this made Ziera and Coran both freeze in place, well, Coran was rigid during his skating escapades, as he could not fully stop. "What's the status?!"

"Wormholing would be a problem," Coran told her, grabbing the system where the com was, pulling himself forward as he finally managed to remain steady for the time being. "The lenses haven't been readjusted, I don't know if the Teladuv will generate enough power!"

"Do everything you can!"

"Princess!" Ziera called out, turning around to address her teammates. "Is there a way to translate the Altean scripture in the systems to my home language? I have some ideas, but I can't access anything when I can't read it!"

"I can set it up for you from here...!" Allura started, her fingers moving quickly on the floating monitor perched in front of her. "Do whatever you can to get this ship as far away from Zarkon as possible!"

"I won't let you down!" The engineer stated as everything on her screen finally shifted and phased into a different scripture altogether, which made her smile brightly as she began typing at long last. "Give me a little time!"

"Alright, keep us posted!" Shiro called out before the com went dead and the two were left to work around the tremors and alarms that blared throughout the room.

"Ziera, can you pull power to the turbines, if we're going to even attempt a jump, we need to make sure the Teladuv can take it!" Coran asked while he slid into the generator to assess the damage to the lenses himself.

"Already on it!" Ziera called back, typing so quickly, any normal person would have gotten a cramp. Luckily, like the Olkari, the Tylyrion race were natural technicians, though some cultivated the talent more than others as she had herself.

"It's going to be a bumpy ride!" Coran exclaimed as he skated back over to the monitor and typed at a similar speed to his newest ally. "With a few adjustments, I can get the turbine up and running once again, then I can start adjusting the Telduv's laser trajectory."

"Do what you need to do! Anything's better than staying here with Zarkon's fleet!"

"I can't argue with you there...That's it!" The older Altean quickly finished his coding and slammed a finger down on the com button, opening a channel to the bridge. However, he lost his footing and began sliding around once again. "The turbine's up!" He informed them, despite his terrible footing. "Still working on the-aaaah!"

Suddenly his feet lost their purchase and he couldn't keep his balance, landing on his rear before falling forward and spinning around to a stop. "Are you alright, Coran?" Ziera asked, glancing from the screen to the man on the floor behind her, it took a lot of effort to keep the power balanced throughout the castle.

"Uh, guys..." He started, crying comically. "I think I'm realizing now that I do, infact, have a case of the Slipperies..." He managed to get up, and the look on each of the other passengers faces would have made Ziera laugh if she had been given the chance to look over her shoulder. "I'm sorry I yelled at you Pidge, I may need your help afterall."

"I'm coming down!" Pidge stated, quickly scrambling from her seat as the com shut down, leaving them to their devices. After a moment, the short brunette stumbled into the room. "What can I do?"

"Help Ziera divert power!" Coran ordered, and Pidge did just that, running to the monitor at Ziera's side and typing rapidly. However, she was not there for long. "Slide me to that monitor!" Immediately the young paladin dropped what she was doing and pushed the older gentleman towards the machine to his right. "Wipe my sweat!" And finally, she rushed around his sides, using a towel to clean the slick sweat from his skin and clothes.

"Uh, Pidge, you might want to contact the bridge and tell them the drones will be going offline, I need to divert more power, but there are only so many systems left that I can siphon it from!"

"Got it!" Pidge pressed the com button just as the red, blue and black paladins' drones shut down, and Keith started to investigate the cause, wondering out-loud if there was a system failure. "Nope, that was us!" She called out, surprising them as Coran slipped back and forth out of camera shot behind her.

"We needed to divert power from non-essential systems to the Teladuv to bring it back online!" Ziera started, glancing over her shoulder at them.

Lance did not like that response and stood up, clenching his fist. "Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!"

"Not inside a wormhole, it isn't!"

"Uh guys, are you taking power from other places too?" Hunk asked nervously as he looked over his screens.

"Yes, sorry, they'll be put back online once we're safe!"

"Uh, we've lost secondary controls...Thermal regulator's offline! Oh no, there goes the particle barrier!" Hunk was having a full-blown fear meltdown at this point, sweating bullets as he tried to keep an eye on the systems through his blurry, tired eyes.

However, with those last few systems offline, Coran pulled the lever upwards for the Teladuv and it lit up, now ready for use. "Okay, try it! We should be able to make one, very small, jump!" The mechanic hesitated and looked down slightly. "I hope."

Ziera spun around and watched as the Teladuv door closed and the monitor switched to a view of the inside chamber, while still connected via voice to the bridge. "Is it gonna hold?" Pidge asked.

"I guess we're about to find out!"

The monitor turned white with a bright light, and Shiro's voice echoed through the room. "The wormhole's open!" But, only after slipping inside and being safe from danger for a few moments, cracks and shattering crashes were heard inside the Teladuv chamber, and the light that once filled the screen died down into nothing.

"Oh no!" Coran cried out. "The lenses are breaking down even more...We'll be out of the wormhole even sooner this time!"

And they were, as the end of the wormhole appeared and they slipped out and into the realms of deep space once again, floating by a large storm on a nearby planet. For a second, they had breathing room, but none of them thought it would last long, so they all just relaxed there, tired from the work.

However, Ziera didn't stop working, her eyes darting from diagram to diagram as her fingers started to cramp from the insane typing she was doing. Now that the lenses were cracking, even more, it was unlikely they could make a third jump, so she decided to take this time to find a way to enable one final escape, should they need to do so.

The com opened up after a few moments, having closed once the wormhole had been activated. "Coran." Shiro started, arching a brow when he saw Pidge and Ziera working hard, while the eldest Altean merely skated around the room on his own sweat like a professional figure skater. "Any good news?"

"Actually there is a bit of good news!" He stated, doing a twirl. "I'm finally getting used to these Slipperies! My mucus glands are working at an incredible rate."

Shiro sweatdropped. "Any news about the Teladuv?" He clarified.

"I'm afraid not..." Coran's tone turned solemn as he stopped. "The last jump overloaded the lense stones, now even more of them are broken...We're going to try some readjustments to change the beam directory." He skated backward and halted at the monitor beside Ziera. "Until then, wormholing will be impossible..."

"Actually..." Ziera started, not taking her eyes from the screen as she kept working, she was already implementing her idea. "I think I know a way we can manage one final jump should we need it!"

"Really?" Pidge and Coran asked, looking at her with dropped jaws, she had not said a word so far towards this, so it came as a surprise.

"Yes!" Her serious frown turned into a bright, confident smile as her eyes lit up over her idea. "If we adjust the mechanical aspects of the Teladuv to make a full jump without the need for an overwhelming level of power..." She glanced at the communication screen, determination radiating off her. "We can push the lenses for one last full jump." She hesitated then. "But...To do that, we'd need to shift the power of the Teladuv to several smaller systems, potentially overloading them and causing them to fail in the process."

"Oh!" Pidge exclaimed, getting the same idea in her head as she opened up her own system directory and began to read off the lesser power units that could be used. "That makes sense! All the excess power for the jump wouldn't overload the Teladuv, though, it will damage a lot more of the lenses...It's risky, but if we divert the overload into the lights and the food dispenser, we should be able to pull it off." She glanced away, knowing what was going to happen once she said her next sentence. "Even though we'd have to do without those systems for about a week or two..."

"I vote we find another solution!" Hunk called out, raising his hand while everyone else gave him an exasperated look. "What? Food's important, we can't go without food for a week!"

"Oh, but we can!" Coran said, moving around even more effortlessly now, as he too began to catch on to the idea and implemented the steps, skidding over to the main mechanical station and opening the hatch, sliding inside to start making the physical changes to the engineering of the Teladuv lenses. "This might just work if we do it right!"

Ziera grinned with a swell of pride when she heard how much they liked her idea, and while Pidge used the other monitor to connect the Teladuv's power source to the other systems, she began the long process of changing the machine's code to allow for less power. "Hey." Pidge piped up as an image appeared, a warning for a nearby weather phenomenon. "There's a metallic storm ahead of us. I think we can hide in the eye of the storm!" While she spoke, Allura brought up the information on the larger screen so they could all read it. "It should give off enough electrical interference, so we can't be tracked!"

"It's worth a shot," Shiro stated, thanking Pidge for her input as Allura flew the castle into the storm's eye, where it was safe from the swirling debris, and hopefully, Zarkon's tracking. Though the ship was shaking violently, and that was not good for Hunk's stomach.

Allura's expression went from tense and fearful, to relaxed and rather elated as she typed on her holographic monitor. "Brilliant Pidge!" She started. "We're essentially invisible to any radar, radio waves, universal scans, or any other known technologies!"

Ziera paused in her programming and spun around to face the communicator. "Wait, Princess...If that's the case, then I can prove my loyalty!" Everyone went silent and looked towards the feline as she placed her hand on her chest. "Should Zarkon appear again, Divine Beings forbid, then I cannot be a spy, as I would have no means of communicating with him!"

Allura paused, shoulders sagging with relief when she realized that Ziera's words spoke true. Even the crystal she wore could not be tracked, otherwise, the castle itself would be a target as well, since it ran off the same kind of crystal, though the method of retrieval was different. "I-" She started, only to be cut off when the red alarms started blaring, and above them, looming over their only escape, was Zarkon's ship, yet again. The Princess' eyes widened as her thought trailed away, and the only word she could speak, was 'no' in a soft, horrified whisper.

Ziera's screen flashed an image of Zarkon's ship around the alarms and she let out a sharp hiss, tangling her fingers into her hair. "You're making it so much easier to hate you, Zarkon!" She snapped, this being the first time she had lost her cool around the paladins. Though she hated the fact that they could not get a break from that dictator, she was also elated to have been proven right.

She could not be a spy, she was finally proven innocent!7

Releasing the grip she had on herm now messy hair, Ziera went back to her coding, feeling her fingers cramp as she pushed herself to type even faster than she did before.

They did not have time to waste!

Pidge slammed her small fist on the monitor, speaking with slight panic. "Okay, I don't know how he found us, but it definitely wasn't with normal instruments!"

Silence echoed for a moment as everyone tried to figure out how he could be tracking them, Ziera looked at her crystal, gripping it tightly, wondering if it could be the cause of all this, but shook the thought from her head. 'If it was my crystal, the castle itself could be tracked too...But, what if...?' She opened her palm.

This crystal was purple, therefore the way it was procured must have been different, which meant the frequency it radiated would differ too...Could he have found a way to track the quintessence in the crystal, rather than the technology it could power?

Before she could even confirm her own suspicions, Allura's voice echoed through the room. "It's me...!" Everyone paused and turned to face her, shocked and confused by her simple words, as she looked up at them. "It's been me all along. That's how they found us on Planet Arus!"

Suddenly a tremor shook the castle, larger than the ones the storm caused, and everyone looked outside, well all those on the bridge, to see thousands of Galra Fighters flying towards them, lasers lighting up the vast space as each and every ship fired at the larger castle in the center of the hurricane.

"It doesn't matter Princess!" Shiro chimed in, despite the emergency. "We're in this together, we're gonna get out together!"

Though he sounded confident, no one else was. "Uh,  _how?_ " Hunk asked. "We're trapped!"

"We'll form Voltron and go through the storm!"

Lance quickly stood from his seat, eyes wider than they should have been. "The storm? What, are you nuts?!"

"Yeah!" Hunk started, standing as well, arms outstretched as if to emphasis the stupidity of the plan. "What are you-what is it-what do you mean? Yeah, why would we do that?!"

"It's risky, I  _know_ ," Shiro exclaimed, turning to face them all. "But it's our  _only_  chance! We have to go through the storm, and lure Zarkon's ship away, giving Allura enough time to get into open space!"

Allura knew Shiro's plan was flawed, but at the same time, she trusted the man she chose to be the black paladin. "Then what?"

"Then we wormhole away!" He spun around and addressed the people in the engine room. "Pidge, can you get back up here, we need you to help us form Voltron!"

"On it!" Pidge was quick to run out of the frame and from the room.

"Ziera!"

The feline space-traveler hummed and glanced over her shoulder, still typing as she addressed Shiro. "What do you need?"

"How long until the Teladuv is ready to power up?"

"I just need a few more minutes!" She warned, sweat sliding down her dark, patterned cheek as she felt the stress of the situation sit on her shoulders. "With Pidge gone, I'm rather short-staffed, the software is rather delicate and needs fine-tuning to perfection, otherwise the entire ship could ignite from the surge of power it may cause!" She frowned and Coran's expression mimicked her own. However, she took a deep breath and shot the leader of the paladins a confident glare. "But I will make it work, trust me to do that while you take care of Zarkon's fleet!"

"Got it, we'll buy you all the time you need, do what you can!"

With those words, the bridge's communicator shut down, leaving the technician and the mechanic to do their work. He was still beneath the console, tinkering with the machine to ensure there was a circuit leading the excess power to other systems, while Ziera was silent, sweat dripping from her chin as the sound of typing filled the small room.

It was broken when the screen switched back on yet again, Allura stood in the bridge on her own, while the paladins did their bit to distract Zarkon. "How's it coming, Ziera?"

"I've managed to lower the power each lense stone would need to endure to about three beams worth of energy!" She started, glancing over at the screen, her eyes shining with confidence, she was certain this would work, given just a few more minutes. "But even then, if we use the Teladuv, the already cracked lenses will disintegrate completely, and any that sustained no damage the last two times will crack as well..."

"Will we still be able to wormhole completely?" Allura asked.

The female feline paused as she turned to face the screen completely, only for a large grin to spread across her once serious features. "Without a doubt!" She nodded eagerly. "I  _will_ enable the system to make a full jump, even if it means I swear off meals for a week!"

Allura's own tense expression softened with a light, grateful smile. "Wonderful!" She then positioned herself for a bumpy ride as Zarkon's ship started to move away from the eye of the storm, chasing Voltron. "Alright, here we go!"

With those words, Ziera and Coran held onto whatever surface they could with one hand, while they worked with the other, feeling the ship move as it started to fly out of the storm. After a second, Allura spoke again. "Oh no!"

"What's the matter, Princess?" Coran called out.

"Zarkon's ship immobilized Voltron! We have to help them escape!"

"Give me just a tick, I need to relocate some power to the lasers first!"

"Please hurry, Coran!"

After a second of Coran's tinkering, and Ziera's assistance in the software side of the act, the man's voice boomed. "Alright, that should do it! Rain hell on them!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" They assumed Allura did just that, considering the silence that followed for a second before she shouted into a different communicator. "Paladins now's your chance! Get out of there!"

Ziera could see the coding coming to an end, and her skin tingled with adrenaline, she had never been so on edge before in her life...No, this adrenaline was familiar, a fear she understood, but couldn't remember.

Had she been in a situation similar to this one, or maybe even one that was worse than this?

Her thoughts were interrupted. "Coran, Ziera, the lions have returned to the castle, we need to go, now!"

"Alright, that should be..." Ziera slammed her finger down on the final button, and the door to the Teladuv slid shut, warning lights flashing on either side of the sealed door. "There! Princess, make the jump!"

"Brilliant! Hold on tight." The communicator went offline and the entire ship began to shake as it entered the wormhole, making a full, if not unstable, jump into clear space. After a second, the tremors stopped and as if on cue, all the lights exploded from the overloaded power supply. Ziera sighed with relief, dropping to her knees, only to grimace when she realized she had just landed in a puddle of Coran's sweat.

Despite that, she smiled. Now she was completely exhausted, coding took a lot of mental strain.

She hummed and looked to the side as the door to the Teladuv opened and Coran skated over, having slipped out of his place under the mechanism, everything set back to how it was. He grabbed the side of the door to halt his journey, and looked into the Teladuv's chamber. "Oh, Quiznak..." He whined.

"What is it?" Ziera asked.

"You were right about that last jump destroying the lense stones...Now we're going to need to find somewhere that sells or makes the very rare Scaultrite lense stones that the Teladuv needs."

"Wait..." A voice echoed through the room as the screen flickered on and Pidge's face appeared. "Did you say Scaultrite?"

"Yes, why?"

"I think Hunk was making some terrible cookies with that stuff!" Hunk's growl of disapproval echoed in the channel. "We should gather them up and see if they can be used in an emergency!"

Twenty minutes or so later, Hunk and Pidge rushed into the room carrying the trays of Scaultrite cookies. Coran was quick to pick one up, humming with a jutted lip as his eyes narrowed and he stroked his chin, inspecting the hazardous snack. "Amazing, it appears these terrible cookies  _do_  have traces of Scaultrite in them!"

"Do you have to call them terrible?" Hunk complained, while Ziera, who stood behind him, giggled.

"With these, we have the resources to make one final jump in an emergency!"

Ziera chimed in, raising one finger. "Though, they'll probably only hold for one jump, if it's only a trace of the necessary material."

The communicator screen lit up and Allura's smiling face appeared on the other side, the other Paladins letting out little yawns in the background. "Coran, Ziera..." She started, watching as the two turned to face her. "It's thanks to you both that we were able to escape, not only that, your quick thinking saved us from using a valuable resource!"

Ziera smiled brightly, glad to have finally gotten on Allura's good side, while Hunk patted her shoulder with a grateful smile of his own, and Pidge shot Coran a thumbs-up, which he reciprocated. "There's no need to thank me, Princess." The feline stated, letting out a tired yawn, fangs gleaming in the blue light of the room as she tried to hide it behind her clawed hand. "Though I must say,  _now_  I am officially exhausted~!"

The screen widened to show the entire bridge, where Lance and Keith were trying not to fall asleep on their chairs. Shiro was the one to speak. "We still don't know if Zarkon will reappear at any moment, but while we have the time, we should all get some rest...Any more than this, and we won't be able to make rational decisions in alarming situations."

"Can't argue with you there..." Pidge agreed, yawning herself as she and the three other occupants of the engine room finally made their leave for a well-deserved rest.

~BHBL~

Ziera was sat in her room, laying on her bed as she snuggled into the blanket, purring contently as she felt herself drifting towards a 'cat nap' as the humans called it. However just as her mind was about to go blank, there was a bleeping at her door, indicating a visitor. She sluggishly opened her tired eyes and glared at the metal barrier, willing it to shut up so she could sleep.

However, knowing she would not forgive herself for ignoring a visitor, she stretched with a cat-like yawn and got out of bed, slipping into her usual space-suit before she walked over to the door and pressed open the lock, allowing it to automatically open when it sensed a person or creature nearby.

On the other side of the door, was the young female of the group. "Oh, Pidge!" Ziera started, wiping her eyes with the back of her glove-less hand, her tail flicking around behind her. "I'm surprised to see you here, weren't you going to rest?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to come by and say something first." Pidge started, smiling up at the older woman. "Thanks for all your help with that whole Zarkon thing...It was a really cool idea to change the power input to other systems to lessen the load on the wormholer, and I wanted to know if it'd be okay if I could pick your brain at some point?"

"Pick my brain? Isn't that rather barbaric?"

Pidge sweatdropped and almost fell over. "N-no, it's a saying on Earth. It means I want to talk to you about ideas for new inventions!"

"Oh!" Ziera's once confused and concerned features lit up excitedly. "I'd be more than happy to spend some time inventing with you! Perhaps that'll help me remember a little more about my previous life in the process!"

"It's worth a shot, right?" Pidge then glanced down at Ziera's bare feet, skimming the area of her room until her eyes landed on the discarded Skate-Overs. "Maybe I can even take a look at your Skate-Overs, make some tweaks and adjust their settings a little, I'm sure I can make them work better if I tinkered with them long enough!"

Ziera giggled, closing her eyes with a bright smile. "I'd be honored if you were to look at my Skate-Overs! But for now, I think you should rest." She placed her hand on Pidge's head, surprising the young girl as it seemed like a gesture an older sibling would use. "You've been busy today, and I'm certain you're as tired as I am, if not more so...We can find time to discuss engineering tomorrow, ok?"

Pidge smiled as the older alien woman dropped her hand. "Okay, have a good rest!" She gave her one last wave, before jogging off towards her own room, excited by the prospect of a well-earned nap.

The older engineer watched the young paladin leave and let out a soft breath and a smile, before she stepped back into her room and closed the door, locking it shut behind her once again. However, instead of going back to sleep, she leaned against the metal surface and closed her eyes.

Despite the stress of everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours, Ziera was glad that she had finally started to earn the trust of the Altean princess and those who worked alongside her. At least now, they all knew that she would never betray them.

She stripped off her suit, leaving her underwear on, and slipped back into bed, snuggling into the pillow with a soft purr. With the emotional stress, she had been through from finding out her birthplace had been destroyed, leaving her new home on Olkarion, joining Team Voltron and outrunning Zarkon...She was glad to finally have some time to just relax.

And within seconds, she felt consciousness slip away from her, and nothing but peace remained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you so much for reading, please review, each comment helps me improve as a writer!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Tick = Second

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review, I want to improve as a writer, and any comments or criticism will really help me towards that!
> 
> I'll see you in the next chapter!
> 
> Voltron Time
> 
> Month = Phoeb


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